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LOUD AND LIVE IN THE DRIVEWAY: I know what you’re thinking - was that 8-cab 3000-watt rig from the new video actually on and live during the shoot? You bet your ass it was. Here’s one of the 100+ raw clips we shot to make the final product, just for some behind-the-scenes fun. And yes, this was live.
FORGED IN FIRE: Last but certainly not least among the “behind the scenes heroes” of the video is Steve Brogden. He captured (both audio and video) the amazing Gene Hoglan playing through “Steiner In Ellipses” at his San Diego-based Forge Audio facility. Gene’s track is a new, separate performance of the song from the one that appears on the original album. We brought his new drums in and made a new mix for the video. That, plus Steve’s video capture, brought The Atomic Clock to life, and let a thousand animated emoji horns bloom. Thank you Steve - and thank you Gene Hoglan ''Official Page''!
THE REAL HERO HERE: No matter which character I was playing in the video, the unbreakable Liz Teisan shot every. single. scene. We collaborated on every aspect - the backdrop, the lighting, the shot framing, and *especially* the characters’ wardrobes and vibes. Without her invaluable input (and we’re talking down to the last detail), B. Harrison Firestone wasn’t as nerdy, Chad Douchery wasn’t as douchey, Jamie Hotlyxx wasn’t as hesher-y, and Mimi Paambidou wasn’t nearly as fabulous.
For the better part of the summer, we spent the weekends setting up each environment, testing the lighting, testing the shot, and then finally going for each clip, one take at a time. Some days were smooth, others were not. The outdoor shots were particularly intense. We were working inside a 20 minute magic-hour-lighting window for the shots of the huge bass rig in the driveway. And getting Jamie’s hike to mountaintop glory was a super high-stakes hour of shooting in intense heat just before the location closed to the public for the day. (I did eight takes of the entire outro up there!) All the while, Liz was patient, calm, encouraging, and just plain amazing.
Liz is also the lead singer and co-songwriter of Late September Dogs, the band whose new album “Learning To Fall” (high energy rock + string orchestra) I told you about a couple of posts ago. That’s because Snarkmaster General Dan Teisan (who wrote many of the comments in the video) is her brother. They’re good. Otherwise Jamie Hotlyxx wouldn’t be wearing their shirt in the video. 😉
KYLE HUGHES PLAYS THROUGH “A QUICKENING”: You’ve got to check out this video of Newcastle UK drummer Kyle Hughes Drums laying down the blistering breakbeat for the “A Quickening” video I dropped the other day. This is him playing the whole song. In case you missed it, the original album track didn’t have live drums at all. It was just fancy beats from the Korg Kronos. Kyle took on the challenge of playing on top of that track, and brought a whole new life to the song in the process.
The talented Mr. Hughes has been doing gigs and recordings with Ron "Bumblefoot” Thal and Marco Mendoza, and once live music returns I’m sure you’ll see him out there killing it somewhere. He’s one to watch!
Also, in addition to his amazing performance, I do have to thank him for agreeing to be a “straight man” to all of the ridiculous characters in the actual video. 😉
EDITING AT THE SPEED OF ZZ SATRIANI: There is no way the video for “A Quickening/Steiner In Ellipses” (link in comments) would feel the way it does - fast, frenetic, in your face, and with funny bits flying at you a mile a minute - if it wasn’t for the amazing job ZZ Satriani did in editing the whole thing. I first became a fan of his work when I saw how he handled the tour documentary “Beyond The Supernova” for his father Joe (instrumental rock guitarist, maybe you’ve heard of him?). It was all so surreal and beautiful in the slower shots, but in other faster moments it just felt supercharged, like you were being propelled forward into the screen.
Then I saw his 2018 web series “Act Natural: The Untold Story Of The Natural Actor”. I just couldn’t believe how funny and awesome it was - but more than that, it was moving at a completely different speed than I grew up on: hyper, dizzying, outrageous, and again, surreal. I’m going to link to it in the first comment. It is *so* worth your time.
When I came up with the concept for the new song video, I always imagined it moving pretty quickly. But I couldn’t have imagined it positively crackling with the kind of energy it does, and that’s because of ZZ Satriani’s absolutely masterful job in editing - which also included creating the vibe for the on-screen comments and flying emoji’s as well.
We shot about 120 usable clips in total, loaded them into Adobe Premiere Pro, and handed it off to ZZ. Two weeks later, he handed this back, in nearly final form. Incredible work.
Find ZZ Satriani here: zzsatriani.blog
and on Instagram: zzsatriani
For my NJ followers: Route 22 between Springfield and Newark has like 7 different levels of horror and hell, and ugly is only one of them. Yeah, Truck 1 & 9 / Tonnelle Ave. is ugly, but predictable. Route 22 is the Fight Or Flight Freeway.
getting a lot of blowback for declaring Route 440 is NJ’s ugliest highway but I stand by it. 495 is a close 2nd. 46 between the McDonald’s & Willowbrook is 3rd.
