Musician Mike Skinner turns actor and director with 'The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light'

LONDON (AP) — Mike Skinner is doing it all himself — even if it takes years.

He wrote, directed, edited and starred in a feature-length movie, “The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light.” It is accompanied by an album of the same name released last Friday — the first album from The Streets in 12 years. Formed in London in the early 1990s, The Streets' debut record “Original Pirate Material” was released in 2002 and became an instant classic. Their lyrics reference club culture, hangovers in cafes and dating celebrities, but also topics like male fragility in “Dry Your Eyes” and battles with grief in “Never Went to Church.”

Skinner's movie “The Darker the Shadow, the Brighter the Light” is described as a “neo-noir detective film” but instead of a private eye solving the case, it's a DJ. Though obviously nonfiction, it references Skinner's life as a DJ in his mid-40s — taking place in backstage rooms, on dance floors and behind decks and in the backseats of cars as the sun comes up.

Skinner jokes that it didn’t really feel like he had “much choice” in taking on all of the roles in the filmmaking process, because “no one was going to give me any money to do it.” It took seven years.