photo by: Contributed

Lawrence musician Perry Lockwood, performing in this undated contributed photo, has written two songs for Michael Coffey's film "One Eye Open."

In addition to shooting his latest movie in Lawrence, filmmaker Michael Coffey also enlisted the talents of local musicians to help set the vibe for his suspense thriller “One Eye Open.”

The major contributor is Kansas City-area composer Nathan Towns, who wrote the score and did the sound design and effects. Towns has picked up multiple awards for his work on the project, including “Best Original Score” from the Los Angeles Crime and Horror Film Festival.

Another contributing musician was Perry Lockwood, a longtime Lawrencian, who wrote two original songs for the film: the titular “One Eye Open” and “The Eye of the Night.”

Longtime Lawrence residents might remember Lockwood, who is in his mid-50s, as the doppelgänger of Poison’s Bret Michaels or as the founder of Rock My Party, which provided celebrity lookalikes as party hosts. Really longtime residents may have seen Lockwood as a “baby Elvis Presley” tagging along with his Elvis impersonator dad, Bob Lockwood. At 5 or 6 years old, he’d throw on some sunglasses, pop his collar and make like the King.

These days he still writes music and performs — he was named best solo musician in this year’s Best of Lawrence contest — but he also does other gigs like refereeing for Lawrence Parks and Recreation, where he says he’s known as the “rock ‘n’ roll ref.”

Lockwood said that he met Coffey “while I was doing cover band stuff.” The initial idea was for Lockwood to create a cover of Metallica’s platinum 1991 hit “Enter Sandman” for Coffey’s movie.

“I did the song, and he loved it,” Lockwood said of Coffey. “But Metallica wanted too much money for the rights.”

Undaunted, Lockwood told Coffey, “I’ll write you an even better song; just tell me what the movie’s about and what it’s called.”

Enter “One Eye Open,” which Lockwood said he wrote in about 30 minutes after the inspiration grabbed him. He also mixed, mastered and produced it.

When he saw that Coffey enjoyed it, he decided to write another one, “The Eye of the Night.” Both songs play at the end of the film, he said, and have a “suspenseful feel.”

Lockwood said Coffey invited him over to see the film on a small screen, but he reluctantly declined. Though eager to see it, he said he was holding out for the thrill of experiencing it on “the big screen” on Oct. 16 at the AMC Legends 14 in Kansas City.

Another local musician whose work features in Coffey’s film is Ashley Davis, a Lawrence artist who is particularly known for her Celtic singing and songwriting. Coffey uses two of her songs in the movie: “Bus to Dublin” and “Picture Frames.”

photo by: Contributed photo

Ashley Davis