This past weekend I crossed two state lines to make a couple of music videos. (Okay, going from Chicago to southern Michigan isn't too crazy a drive, but I like the sound of my first sentence!). Since moving to Chicago over a month ago, I've decided to film a couple of music videos that showcase my own "beatbox saxophone" style. I've been developing this fun solo way of playing my horn over the last 8 or so years and figured now would be the time to record some of it. I also plan to launch a weekly youtube tutorial series on how I create most of these sounds, but that's getting ahead of myself.
So anyways, I had been speaking over the phone with a good friend and music collaborator of mine David Youngman. If you don't know him, he's an amazing fingerstyle guitarist (check out his website here: http://www.davidyoungmanmusic.com/) with whom I've done a good deal of touring in our jazz/bluegrass hybrid group Afterthought and our more experimental The Duo Project. We talked about my coming over to his hometown in Hillsdale, MI sometime to do a video or two. He's got quite a bit of audio and video equipment accumulated over the years and has a really good ear and eye for things.
The most exciting thing of our filming was the location. David got ahold of a guy in town that owns a huge old flour mill and warehouse that we could use for a day. Check it out below:
Pretty atmospheric, huh?
So Sunday afternoon we brought all of our gear into this massive building, got the lights and recording gear set up, discussed our plan for filming, and then action! By the end of the evening, we had 2 songs completed. To people who haven't done this kind of thing before, that might not seem like much. But you'd be surprised how long these things can take, especially when you want the sound quality, the lighting, the camera angles, and etc just right. And plus, there's always lots of experimenting going on (as well as exploring!).
So how did these videos turn out? You and I both will have to find out, as I just got back to Chicago and can start to begin the even longer process of editing the gigabytes and gigabytes of data we recorded. The good news is that the audio was all done in single takes, as I wanted to preserve the authenticity of my solo style without any overdubs or effects. The video: now that's another story, but expect some fun and interesting camera work.
So I think the weekend was a real success, but you the listeners will have to be the judges when it comes out. And when will that be? As you've hopefully come to expect from me here on this blog...
I'll keep you posted.
So anyways, I had been speaking over the phone with a good friend and music collaborator of mine David Youngman. If you don't know him, he's an amazing fingerstyle guitarist (check out his website here: http://www.davidyoungmanmusic.com/) with whom I've done a good deal of touring in our jazz/bluegrass hybrid group Afterthought and our more experimental The Duo Project. We talked about my coming over to his hometown in Hillsdale, MI sometime to do a video or two. He's got quite a bit of audio and video equipment accumulated over the years and has a really good ear and eye for things.
The most exciting thing of our filming was the location. David got ahold of a guy in town that owns a huge old flour mill and warehouse that we could use for a day. Check it out below:
Pretty atmospheric, huh?
So Sunday afternoon we brought all of our gear into this massive building, got the lights and recording gear set up, discussed our plan for filming, and then action! By the end of the evening, we had 2 songs completed. To people who haven't done this kind of thing before, that might not seem like much. But you'd be surprised how long these things can take, especially when you want the sound quality, the lighting, the camera angles, and etc just right. And plus, there's always lots of experimenting going on (as well as exploring!).
So how did these videos turn out? You and I both will have to find out, as I just got back to Chicago and can start to begin the even longer process of editing the gigabytes and gigabytes of data we recorded. The good news is that the audio was all done in single takes, as I wanted to preserve the authenticity of my solo style without any overdubs or effects. The video: now that's another story, but expect some fun and interesting camera work.
So I think the weekend was a real success, but you the listeners will have to be the judges when it comes out. And when will that be? As you've hopefully come to expect from me here on this blog...
I'll keep you posted.
