DENVER (AP) – Trevor Pryce is looking for big hits in the offseason, too.
The pass rusher who recorded 13 sacks for the Baltimore Ravens last year kept his home in the Rocky Mountains and a swank studio in downtown Denver when the Broncos released him 16 months ago.
It’s in this LoDo loft not far from where he made his mark at Invesco Field and the old Mile High Stadium that Pryce is trying to put his imprint on music and movies.
On a recent brainstorming session with three of his employees, Pryce scribbles colorful grease markers on the window of his office, trying to nail down the details of a movie script he’s pitching to Hollywood executives titled “Treaty of Gods,” a modern take on Greek mythology.
“I’m tired of seeing the same ideas being hauled out over and over. How many more times am I going to have to see Zeus in a movie? There’s other cultures,” Pryce said. “How many times am I going to have to see Dracula? There’s other monsters besides vampires.”
So, into this cutthroat business steps the Brooklyn native, the son of Jamaican immigrants, a 6-foot-5 mountain of a man whose creative passion belies this imposing lineman cut like a bodybuilder.
He’s not sticking to one genre, either. He’s also putting the finishing touches on a cartoon idea titled “Brother Goose,” which he describes as a “fractured fairy tale.”
In between workouts to get ready for the season, Pryce is juggling these projects while also managing a handful of acts he has signed to his Outlook Music Co. label that he launched in 1998, his second season in the NFL.
He thinks he has two hits on his hands in the Virgin Millionaires, mainstream rockers from Indianapolis, and West Palm Beach rapper Suave Smooth, who has a release featuring T-Pain.
Pryce knows casual football fans preparing for their upcoming fantasy drafts will find it surprising that he’s not just hitting the weights and waiting for training camp.
“One of the things that drives me is proving people completely wrong,” Pryce said.
About the dumb jock stereotype. About being washed up after recording just four sacks for the Broncos in 2005. About being too much of a physical specimen to be this cerebral.
“When I was 12 years old, I tried a little bit of everything. I played tackle football, I played soccer, I played basketball. And when I came inside, I picked up a guitar, I tried to write a rap. I was just being a kid,” explained Pryce, who turns 32 next month. “And to this day, I still think the same way. I mean, at the end of the day I play a child’s game for a living, a very good living. And I have an overactive imagination.”
Pryce talked his way into a recording lab class while at the University of Michigan even though he couldn’t read music, a course requirement, and learned his way around the studio. When he was drafted by the Broncos in 1997, he bought a home and built a replica of that sound studio that’s now filled with every instrument you can imagine – and Pryce plays them all.
There are synthesizers, DJ mixers, drum machines, turntables, speakers, electric-six string and acoustic guitars, drum sets, keyboards. The mixing console in his studio was custom-built for Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, just one of the many pieces of vintage equipment he’s collected.
He’s also amassed thousands of records, from vinyl to disc to digital.
Pryce started out trying to release his own album for London Records, but that project fizzed when London Records merged with other labels. So, he started his own record company and decided to look for other bands to promote. Among his finds are St. Louis indie rockers Autovein and Daphne Loves Derby.
Pryce got the movie bug when his young daughter gave him an idea about a wishing well last year, saying she couldn’t tell him her wish because then she might end up with somebody else’s. After he wrote up a treatment he discovered the idea wasn’t new and somebody already had that story line in development.
Instead of hanging his head over his misfortune, Pryce said he took solace in knowing his idea was on target, so he started exploring other ideas.
While he savors the sensation of making up movie lines and listening to new songs that aspiring artists send him, Pryce still gets his biggest thrills on the football field.
“They’re equally enjoyable but it’s hard to compare apples and caviar,” Pryce said.
On the other hand, Pryce said his offseason endeavors are much harder than playing football.
In sports, he said, “you win or you lose. You’re good or you’re not.”
It’s black and white, like math.
“In politics, music, art, life in general, the way you raise your kids, all that’s up for debate,” Pryce said. “I can sit here and tell you a song is the best I’ve ever heard and you could think it stinks and neither of us is going to convince the other.”
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On the Web: http://outlookmusic.com
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