Words

We are lucky to have an amazing support system back in our hometown of Wichita, KS. In the middle of shooting a video for “Dark Horses” in Barnsdall, OK – (Population 1242- more on that later) we realized our next radio single was going to be the song “Hey Hey.”  Which meant that we now had less than 4 weeks to shoot a another music video. With the band on the road playing 4-5 days a week and doing radio every chance it could get,  we had a slim window to achieve what we needed.  We were able to stop in Downtown LA for half an afternoon and shoot us playing the song through…until someone threatened to call the cops and we were shut down.  Alex Frost, from our label S3, did a great job pulling an art studio together last minute and hired the excellent Brett Sorum and Will Springhorn for DP and lighting.

We fed-exed the footage to our fearless “energy czar” Wade Hampton in Wichita and he pulled together our gypsy cast, including “Barry Funkenstein”- our faux attorney (you might remember Barry from “Everything that Mattered”) and one of the most talented women alive- Emma Craig. Emma is a local celeb starring in Hairspray back in Wichita and several projects in NYC.

Now don’t get me wrong, Emma is gorgeous, but she is not a fake-looking stick preying-mantis thing that Hollywood parades around as a model of beauty. We are a Midwest band- we are proud of Emma and Andy – because they are regular folks like us- not topless models trying to go viral in a rock video.

With the cast in place, Wade secured locations, crew and props.   Only a few weeks later, and we had the finished product in our hands. We are constantly astonished at the amount and quality of work that Wade is able to accomplish with limited resources and time, and “Hey Hey” was no different.

A few tidbits of information on the video.  People have been asking about the masks in the office. Those are the “haters”: the unimaginative, cynical, negative folks that will tell you to do things exactly how they do- and are frightened if you are having too much fun or living your own life.  The river at the end of the video is the mighty Arkansas river that runs right through the heart of Wichita and is referenced in the lyrics “Down by the river one of us is gonna die.”  To those of you who are wondering what the hell those fireworks have to do with anything- note that she has sparkly fireworks around her computer monitor in her office- this is her fabulous dream world to escape the mundane.

Finally, those of you with a really keen eye will find a few Easter eggs tucked in there too- note Emma sticking out her tongue like Gene Simmons while dancing (KISS was Gooding’s first concert and he worships Gene Simmons).  The photo frames on Emma’s desk have some of Wade’s and my favorite bands in them: Joan Jett, Bowie and Queensryche.  Wade has had Queensryche’s “Revolution Calling” play whenever I call him for years.  Alex called them Extreme and Wade blew up. Rightfully so.

So despite the quick turnaround we were still able to make the video that we wanted to make, directed and created by the people who have always taken care of us, full of moments that are special to us and our fans.  Not half bad.

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