Paul Levatino and Chadwick Murray became great friends at LHHS over 30 years ago, and Levatino has continued to honor his late friend’s legacy through his recent documentary film, Bastards of Soul, which tells the story of a band, their creation of a new album, and the death of their frontman and LHHS alumni Chadwick Murray.
After moving to Dallas as a young teen, Levatino began attending Lake Highlands High School where he bonded with Murray over their shared love of music. With Levatino playing drums and Murray playing bass guitar, the two quickly became friends.
“He came up, met me one day and introduced himself and said he had heard I played drums and we should jam together. And we started jamming together.”
Along with Murray, several of the band members of Bastards of Soul lived in Lake Highlands at the time and all knew each other. They were hoping to get together to create a classic soul band. It was Max Hartman, another LHHS graduate in the band, who encouraged Murray to be the frontman.
“I mean, he knew how to command a stage. It was almost like he had always done it,” Levatino commented on Murray’s skills as frontman.
Years later, the high school friends reconnected when Murray ran into Levatino and invited him to check out his band which had been selling out the Kessler and Ridgely theaters and performing with the Black Pumas and Kumasi Washington.
They also released their debut album just before the pandemic lockdown, but COVID shut down the band.
Levatino, a filmmaker and marketing executive, was asked to work with them as the band was getting back in the studio, and he quickly fell in love with Bastards of Soul.
“We wanted to get beautiful footage of them in the studio doing this process, but it was really mainly for social media and things like that,” Levatino commented on the recording process. “We didn’t realize that these would actually be the final days of the band.”
Tragically, Chadwick Murray passed away in 2021 at just 45 years old from a rare respiratory illness.
“I didn’t know I would do anything with the footage, and I think it took about six months for me to go back and really look at it and emotionally kind of get through looking at that footage,” Levatino mentioned.
When he was finally able to look through the footage, Levatino realized that despite Murray’s passing, there was still a story to tell.
“I wanted people to know about the band and who these guys were and who Chadwick Murray was and submit that legacy.”
Levatino was able to turn Bastards of Soul from a documentary about a band recovering from COVID into a tribute for one of his childhood friends and a band struck by tragedy.
There’s no doubt that Levatino picking up the camera for the first time back in high school contributed to his passion and skill in filmmaking, and now he has some advice of his own for students hoping to get involved with music and film production who are aiming to accomplish incredible things like him.
“There’s a level of humility that you’ve got to take so you can learn from people who’ve been there. I do think that they need to be open to kind of taking that feedback and that criticism, but really not being discouraged and always just kind of chasing your dream,” he expressed.
Chadwick Murray was beginning to realize his dreams before it was too late, and that is both the message of the documentary film and Levatino’s advice to all LHHS students.
“I just want to tell people to chase their dreams. Don’t wait for tomorrow because tomorrow may never come.”
