Behind the scenes of our first video shoot, Armor; soon to be released debut single.
The day starts out with a slightly foggy head from the show the night before, and a potful of coffee. It's Saturday morning; Canada Day weekend! The only day we could manage to sync schedules with our videographer. In trying to come up with a video concept for the song, the idea of it taking place in the woods just came to me out of the blue (as walking in nature is something I love to do to) and it played itself out in my head. I ran it by my cousin Patricia a month earlier - a photographer who just happened to be taking some training in filmwork at the time. We met one Tuesday evening at Upstreet Brewery in Charlottetown and discussed my idea, and a few other things, for over an hour. She listened to the song in my car, and she was pumped to work on it - being a lover of mother nature and our PEI forests herself - I knew she could see the vision I had.
I try to think of everything we need for the shoot - guitars, wardrobe, water... Something I totally didn't think of was a speaker to pump the song through. But luckily we end up with two at the shoot. As we start the 47 minute drive to get to the location, I realize we need gas, and a few directions! I kind of knew how to get there, sort of... of course it's not until we're almost lost that I realize I have no service on my phone for google maps...
The stress of the unknown, the anxiety of how it will all turn out, putting my vision in someone else's hands - Will we get there and not have a sweet clue what we are doing? Did we just waste everyone's time?
A few last minute turns on newly busy, tourist filled twisty roads, and Mike directing me from a screen shot of a portion of a map, that I luckily took, we finally see Patricia's car parked on the side of a quit country road. An army of sky high trees flank both sides of the empty road as if they're guarding the secrets inside. Ummmm where are we? We park the car and get out. There's barely a path that leads into the thick, mysterious woods, and hangry mosquitos swarm us, diving in, for their first meal of the season I'm sure. I instantly feel a bite on my ass.. luckily Patricia brought the "armor" we need for the day and we douse ourselves in the summer perfume of eau d'OFF. Did I mention it's the hottest day of summer so far?! I'm in a faux (aka vegan) leather jacket and boots, Mike's wearing a toque! Sweating already...
Our drummer arrives minutes after us. We unload his drums and our guitars and pick a spot not too far off, still feeling a bit unsure of how it's all going to go. This is a first time for all of us shooting a video. I'm sure we're all thinking What are we doing?!
We set up, and we just get at it, cause that's what we're here for. A few takes and some time goes by and we settle in. There's just something about being in nature; isolation, away from all of life's distractions. Worry and stress seem to just disappear and we focus on creating our vision. It's a surreal moment when I realize our song is streaming through the woods with drums echoing around the trees. Hours roll by. We are covered in bug bites, tripping on broken branches, brush and tree roots, but we are lost in the moment and loving every minute of it. The sun peeks in over the towering tree tops that seem to hold up the baby blue sky canopy above us. At some point throughout the day, we all have our individual realizations of OMG we're doing this!?
Three hours later we feel we have what we need. We pack up for the day, feeling accomplished and head back to load vehicles with our stuff. I soon realize I forgot my guitar somewhere and have to backtrack, through the overgrown brush and idk.. poison ivy? and mosquitos to find it peacefully laying there, in the wilderness amongst the trees. I just take a moment to really be there and take it all in.
We leave the day behind, exhausted, wreaking of Deet with new red itchy bumps all over our bodies, but we are giddy and high. Oh and hangry cause we forgot to eat.
Still much work to do but we can't wait to see the final product and put it out there for you to watch with us :) Thanks for taking time to read all about it!
Armor will be released mid-July and will be available on all streaming and downloading platforms, with the video release soon after.
Subscribe to our mailing list (on the homepage) for the latest news!
Peace <3
https://song.link/ca/i/1412452581
