I’ve performed in a lot of music videos and I can tell you that they are all memorable in one way or another. The first one we ever did was at an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. I called up the Texas Film Commission and asked them if they could help me find a beat up old house to shoot in. I called and to my surprise it was like they were sitting around waiting for something to do. The lady I spoke with asked me to give her a few days to research. Sure enough a few days later she called me up and had found multiple places to shoot. Awesome! We picked out a location and she even coordinated getting permission from the land owner.
Most property owners are going to want payment or at the very least some type of assurance that they won’t be responsible if there are any problems. Rock band cause problems? Nahhhh. This may mean you taking out an insurance policy for the shoot or simply signing an agreement that says you are doing this at your own risk. All this owner wanted was an agreement. Perfect! We had an ex-bandmate who shot videos so after some equipment rental we were good to go.
Let me start by saying this house was creepy. I believe the band Little Feat had shot a video there previously. I wondered what that shoot was like. We set up a generator for electricity and started shooting individual shots of everyone in the band. We had planned on shooting for two days and things were going relatively smooth. While we still had daylight we had time to shoot a full band take or two in the front yard. This yard was a mess, uneven with shallow holes and bricks skewed around. So the playback is cranked up and we’re rolling. My bass player Scott was rocking back and forth when suddenly he fell down. We didn’t realize it immediately but he had had lost his footing as one the bricks had given way to a hole. Snap! He had broken his leg and was in complete agony. I think Pantera said it best: “I’M BROKEN!” Obviously we needed to figure out something fast.
As I said before we were out in the country, it would be faster to drive him to a hospital than call an ambulance and try to describe where in the hell we were. In the back of our tour van we had a flat board that helped us lift him and keep his leg from moving. We also had a bottle of Jack Daniels that helped take the edge off his excruciating pain. The closest hospital was not back in Austin but a little country hospital. Turns out he already had a damaged bone and the fall pushed it to the limit. He ended up spending a couple of days there recovering. This is the kind of stuff I never thought about when I got into music. You don’t have to be in the music business for very long to realize that the music part is just a small piece of the puzzle. Hopefully you learn to think on your feet. I suggest taking all these kind of speed bumps as lessons on how to do it the next time. I know these experiences have made me wiser and a more evolved person than I was.
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Over the past few months I’ve been putting together a recording course that I will be releasing soon. Having mixed a ton of independent projects I know what the problem areas are for recordings done in home and project studios. I’ve developed a method that any musician or engineer can use to get get great sounds every time they record. More importantly these are tones that will work in the context of a mix. When I have a release date you guys will be the first to know. I’m stoked about this project as I’ve poured my heart, soul, and knowledge into it. It’s a real game changer and I think you are going to love it. More details coming soon…
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Also, in case you didn’t know, I mix singles, EPs, and Albums for Rock and Metal bands.