Turns out shooting a music video is incredibly glamorous.
First, you wake up at 6 a.m. the morning after you play a super long show. Then you grab coffee, a quick bite, get to the first location by 7 a.m. You plop in a chair and someone works on your hair and makeup for like an hour while your poor horn player has to play solos along to a sync track over and over and over, and you just know he’s hungover and desperate for a nap.
Next it’s your turn. You take a seat, sing and play through the song in its entirety. You feel it! You rock! You’re in the zone! It’s magic! The director yells, “Cut! That was amazing! That was THE take! Wow! Incredible! Now let’s do it again!”
For like another 20 takes.
Then it’s time to switch locations.
Now it’s 10 a.m.
By the time you finish, it’s 7 p.m. You’ve been on a boat on the water with nothing to eat for hours. You’ve sung this song probably 75-80 times. You hate this song. You never want to hear this song again. You regret ever writing this song. You wish you were a lawyer. Or a bricklayer. You sing it one last time. You’re finished! You jump in the water with all your clothes on! Someone hands you a shot of tequila. You love this song! You love your life! You love being a musician!
You change out of your wet clothes into shorts and a t-shirt. Your t-shirt immediately soaks through. The boat goes back to the dock. The remnants of makeup run down your face. Someone hands you your wet clothes in a white plastic garbage bag. You walk into your fancy hotel lobby with wet hair, runny makeup, wet t-shirt, flip flops, wet clothes in a white garbage bag and your guitar slung over your back.
Shooting a music video is incredibly glamorous. xox
PS. It really was an incredible day. As hard as I worked, everyone else involved worked much harder. And still managed to have fun! Huge thanks to John Lair, Lizzz Kritzer, Debra Lair, Danny T. Levin, Rafael Manresa, Teresa Morgan and Danielle Lise Desrochers! xox
John Lennon famously said that songwriting was like cockroaches in your kitchen in the middle of the night–you turn on the light and they all scatter. (Clearly, he lived in New York.)
The point (I think) was that often, like lots of parts of life, we don’t understand exactly what we’re getting when we’re getting it, or where it comes from or where it will go. We have to trust what comes in when it does, and understand that if we shine too bright a light on the process it all might disappear.
To that end, I’m getting ready to record a new EP (yippee!). I was putting some demos together, which lead to combing through some older stuff, and I came across this song I wrote 4 or 5 years ago called “Come Undone”. The song came in quickly, and then I promptly set it aside, because I was scared of what it was saying.
The thing is, now I just like it. For what it was, for what it is, and for what it did.
Funny thing, those cockroaches… xox
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