Music videos are fun... aka... memories from Friday Night is for the Drinkers

I was going to write about the events of this past week which will likely be burned into my brain unless/until I get dementia, but I feel like thinking about something else for a few minutes. It’s now been 4 days straight of this encompassing almost my every thought and I’m starting to go mad. Plus, we still don’t know enough about why law enforcement leadership allowed this to happen. To be continued…

So, let’s talk about something much more fun. To round out the music video blog trilogy, below are my favorite memories from the making of the Friday Night is for the Drinkers music video. Which, if you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing yet, can be found literally, and I mean “literally” in the literal sense, not in the ironic “literally” sense which really means “figuratively,” right here:

In sticking with my theme of not really having bass players in music videos, neither the bass player that was on the record nor my bass player at the time were involved with this video. I don’t remember the precise nature of why, but so it goes. So, ever at the ready, Mr. Jon Fickes once again filled in. I had forgotten that he’s been in my “band” for every music video so far. Strange.

Without further ado, here are the top memories I took from this video shoot:

• Getting to play to an empty Alberta Rose Theater - I had seen a few shows here in the two or three years I had lived in Portland, OR up until that point. It was a pretty cool venue. With a capacity of around 400 or so, I figured it would be a while until I got to play there myself. So, I was delighted when they graciously made us a very fair offer for us to shoot there for the day. The boys, and Jon, suited up (again, literally) and took the stage. I got to hear my song being played over the PA system as we mimed along. It was one of the first times I felt like I was a real professional musician. We had a small crew of people to help out, and we were all working on a project for my music. I love that shot/reveal at the end of the empty room. But, the highlight of the day was when Jon finally revealed his jump splits. All day he had been hyping up how he had been practicing his jump splits and we had planned on putting a slo-mo shot of it in the video. Then, the cameras came on and…well, let’s just say it isn’t in the video. Did make for a good chuckle though. Apparently, he didn’t wear the right shoes or something. I guess we’ll never know…

• The party entrance scenes - Going back through the video, which I haven’t watched in a while, was quite the experience. Really took me back to those two days we shot this sucker, which at this point, is a while back. I think it was 2013 or 2014 maybe. Anyways, I immediately remembered how these entrance scenes were just going to be perfunctory people showing up at the party but they ended up having a some funny moments I still got a chuckle out of just today. The middle finger on the doorbell. Brian popping his head back into the shot after Nick slams the door. The presentation of the Miller Lite and champagne when Nick opens the door. I think the unexpectedly funny moments are sometimes my favorite. The other thing I remember is just how flaky Portland people can be. Maybe it’s just people in general. But, we initially were looking for about 20 people for this scene and had as many or more RSVP’s. But of course, day of, we started getting the cancellation calls. “But we have free pizza and booze.” Still no. Oh well, very thankful to those who did come through for us so it wasn’t a total bust of a “party.”

• The motorcycle wheelie shot - This was fun because it happened so randomly. We were outside Nick/our drummer’s house shooting the Brian/our guitarist’s scene wear he comes out from under the van. Some neighbors were out riding motorcycles since it’s a mostly dead/empty street. One popped by and asked what we were up to. “Shooting a music video. You wouldn’t want to be in it, would you? Maybe do a trick or something?” “Hell yeah,” he replied and we were lucky enough to have that badass shot. Right place, right time and a friendly, willing neighbor. I think it took two, maybe three tries and we had the shot. Thanks again!

• The guitar solo scene - This was fun for a variety of reasons. I love smoke and lasers. I love guitar solos. Mostly though, it was because Brian was a little too drunk to play guitar by the time we shot this scene. Some backstory: as I mentioned, we had originally planned for around 20 or so people, enough but not too many to wrangle when necessary; which means we bought enough booze for around 20 or so people. Being a poor musician, I couldn’t afford anything besides the cheap stuff. It was Miller Lite, Jim Beam, Smirnoff and, by the suggestion of Brian, some Trader Joe’s Almond Champagne. Well, sparkling wine, to be exact. We needed it for the shot of Nick spraying it in slo-mo (up next) but Brian seemed to really enjoy the stuff. In fact, probably a little too much. Since he had requested it, he felt dutifully obligated to make sure it didn’t go to waste. When the guitar solo shots were coming up so we got the bathroom and hallway ready (yes, that’s the bathroom behind him). The lights went out, the laser lights came on, the smoke machine got cooking and…Brian couldn’t fake play the notes. Now mind you, it’s a dark hall and he’s just “finger-syncing,” if you will, so it just has to be ballpark close. But, the first few takes were definitely not. He said it was weird to play without hearing himself, which I get, so we turned his amp on. No dice. So, the amp gets turned up and it’s pretty fucking loud. Still no dice. The amp gets turned back down and now everyone starts to feel awkward since it’s taking longer than anticipated. Finally, around take number 18 or 20 we finally get it close enough. A shot we thought would take like 15 minutes took, well, much longer. I’m not sure if that’s an endorsement for Trader Joe’s Almond Sparkling Wine but it did feature prominently in both the filming and the final cut of the music video.

• Nick spraying champagne - So, this actually starts a little earlier in the evening when Nick was running around the house worried because we didn’t have a corkscrew. We assumed someone had brought some wine and he was trying to help them open it. Nope. He was worried about the champagne spray shot. Did we need one? I questioned myself. Which, to be fair, neither of us had ever opened a bottle of champagne (or sparkling wine) before. I just knew it would explode when you shake it and that would look cool in the video. Nick volunteered to be the the champagne sprayer and since I had never done it before, I was perfectly OK with that. Well, once we figured out that no corkscrew would be needed, we got ready and headed outside for the shot. We all got excited. This was the final shot of the music video. A literal celebration would ensue once we had it. As we all stood back and watched, Nick shook up the champagne, popped the cork and…nothing. It sort of fizzled out. Shit, luckily we got extra. I think we had three bottles left when we started (I’m pretty sure Brian ended up drinking two with only a little bit of help from the rest of us), now we were down to two. OK, make it count. Here comes number two. He shook it up, popped the cork and…some spray but not a slo-mo-penultimate-moment-in-the-video spray. It was crunch time, we were down to the final bottle. He gives it a good shake, pops the cork and…well, you can see it in the video. Success! But unfortunately, and this is a tip to all the people who have not successfully sprayed champagne before, we found out that you cannot, or should not, rather, try and shoot it straight up into the air because…it will come right back down into your eyes. I was glad we got a good champagne spray shot but I can’t imagine that felt good. I cannot say with confidence I wouldn’t have done the same. Neither of us knew how to spray champagne but Nick stepped up and sacrificed to make it happen.

So, that’s what I got for the Friday Night is for the Drinkers video. If you haven’t already, check out my memories from the “LOOKIN’ AT LUCKEY” and “LET’S GO OUT TONIGHT” music videos. Oh, and from that ORIGINAL PHOTO of the Thriller jacket, flask, fake gun and wine bottle; the flask is from this video shoot. I love keeping mementos when doing shit like music videos. I tend to favor that over a bunch of photos on my phone. I just like to have one thing that holds all the memories. And, as a wiser man than myself says, “memories make us rich.” Vic Ketchman, you are quite right. You are quite right, sir. Memories do indeed make us rich. So, I hope you enjoyed me sharing some of those memories from the making of my music videos. Until next week!

Ah, to be young and sitting around a carefully lit table while lip-syncing along to one of your songs while someone films it… Good times…

Music videos are fun... aka... memories from Lookin' at Luckey

So, LAST WEEK I talked about my favorite memories from my the making of the MUSIC VIDEO FOR LET’S GO OUT TONIGHT. This week I’m going go over some fun memories from the making of the music video for Lookin’ at Luckey; which, for those who haven’t seen in it, here it is motherfuckers (but first, a quick, funny story. So, apparently I use the words “fuck” and “fucking” a lot in texts. For the first few months when I get a new phone, it constantly tries to auto-correct it to “duck” and “ducking” and I have to constantly change it back. After a while, it learns and stops. But, what I didn’t know is that now my phone tries to auto-correct “duck” into, yep, you guessed it “fuck.” Which normally is not an issue, but I was sending out a music business related email yesterday and was actually trying to use the word “duck” and almost pressed send before re-reading one last time. Luckily, I did not tell someone that I could “fuck in a little early before the show if you’re still around.”):

This video was also made by my very talented, and quite handsome, friend, Kevin Pietila. And, just like the Let’s Go Out Tonight video, he wrote, directed and edited this. He also did most, if not all, the camera work on this as someone had to back out last second. This was definitely a smaller video in terms of scope and crew versus the LGOT shoot. It still featured my wonderful and talented fake band, which in this video is just my buddy, Jon Fickes, on the guitar, and Kevin’s wife, Sara, who is a very talented songwriter, singer and piano player herself, on the piano. They, along with the addition of David Solomon on drums, were also the fake band in the Let’s Go Out Tonight music video. Oddly, no bass player in either video. Did eventually get to play an actual show with Jon and David once in Lebanon, OR. Good times…

A little bit of backstory. Kevin’s wife, Sara, and my wife, Brianne, initially became friends, first online and then in real life. I think I met Kevin only once when I decided I wanted to work with him. He’s just that charming. That, and he showed us a short film he had made, which was amazing. I knew we had to work together. I also knew I wanted someone with a strong creative vision. That was important since I have Asperger’s (essentially high-functioning autism, for those who don’t know), and one of the ways that affects me is that I have a very difficult time visualizing things that don’t exist. My brain works very literally at times. It’s why I struggle with fantasy or sci-fi movies, apart from Star Wars for some reason, but that’s pretty much the only one. I can’t do superhero movies, I struggle with period pieces, and shit like Lord of the Rings, forget about it. Because of this, I needed someone to create the concepts and write the stories for the videos. I gave Kevin a copy of the record and asked him to pick which song or songs he would like to do. He had complete creative control, within reason/budget. He immediately came back with the Let’s Go Out Tonight zombie story. I loved it. I was so excited and ready to go, but there was one problem: it was December. Can’t really do outdoor, overnight shoots when it’s 35 degrees and pissing rain all night (ahh, those Pacific Northwest winters. They’ll suck your soul away…).

We decided to do a second video and put the Let’s Go Out Tonight video on hold until summer rolled around. I asked Kevin what other song he would be interested in. He said Lookin’ at Luckey sort of reminded him of a relationship he once had. Perfect! We spent a few nights drinking and talking more in depth about the real-life relationships that went into that song. If you’re curious, it’s essentially two very real relationships cherry-picked to make one great song, if I may say so myself (and I may, as this is my fucking blog). He added in some of his own experiences and voila. A video was born. Now, for the memories, in no particular order. I could put them in some sort of order but that would imply that I plan these out and think about them and do actual editing on them. Nope, just a fucking random list.

(Editor’s note: we’ll see how this list goes as I’m really pissed right now. I just found out someone hit my car while it was parked in my apartment’s parking lot. The right front bumper was popped out a little and there’s fucking red paint that was scraped on. I’m also pissed since I have no idea when it happened as I so rarely leave the house these days. So, someone hit it hard enough to pop the bumper out of place, which luckily I was able to pop back into place, and leave paint behind. Fuck. Oh, and Portland, OR is charging me for an Arts Tax even though I moved away last year. I don’t mind supporting the arts but I don’t even fucking live there anymore. One last parting “fuck you” from my least favorite city in America. Well, fuck you too, Portland. Fuck you too…)

• The drinking fake wine but smoking real cigarettes on the roof scene - One thing they rarely tell you about making any type of art is how long it can take. Making an album, a TV show, a painting, whatever, it always takes longer than you think. So, to combat this for a scene involving drinking we poured out the wine in the bottle and refilled with water. But, we should have rinsed out the bottle a few times before refilling with good ol’ H2O. What we were left with was a bottle of wine flavored water, which is not the tastiest concoction. But, it was funny as Sonora (the female lead), out of habit, would take pulls of between takes. It’s just what you do when you have a bottle of wine in your hand. Plus, it’s what you do when you are a little lightheaded from chain smoking American Spirits like it’s fucking 1963 again. I’m sure they make prop cigarettes but those in the video are most certainly not. When I stood up to go back inside, I thought I might fall off the roof. Luckily (pun intended?), neither of us fell off the roof, which would have put a big damper on the shoot.

• The pretending to be asleep scene - This is where my true acting skills really shined. I can, and I don’t want to brag too much, pretend to be asleep fairly convincingly. I’m not going to say I’m the Leonardo DiCaprio of slumberland, but it’s probably the best acting I’ve done in any video to date. OK, maybe I was actually pretty good at being a zombie in the Let’s Go Out Tonight video. But, I still think I’m a better pretend sleeper. Probably because for a few takes I actually did start to nod off. When you’re laying in a comfortable Air BnB bed and your direction from the man behind the camera is just to lie still and don’t move, it’s hard not to. Maybe I’m just method, I don’t know. Oscars, here I come.

• The fake performance scenes - OK, so this might be my favorite memory from the Luckey shoot. We did some really fun stuff and I credit Kevin for making these shoots so enjoyable. He really knew how to take care of his cast and crew. So, let me set the scene. We started this night doing the mingling intro scene and then the me singing to the frozen Luckey scene (up next). There was a couple other things to shoot (and I think I forgot to bring something so I had to run home quick) which backed up the shoot a bit, which always run a bit behind anyways. So, it was already around 11pm when we started the band performance shots. The Air BnB had a noise cutoff around then so we had to be super quiet. Usually for performance shots, you crank up the music so you can actually play/sing and it looks real. But, being too late for that, we had to keep volume super low. Here we are, almost no sound to play to and we had to (very quietly) rock the fuck out in the kitchen of this Air BnB. Not exactly the most Rock ‘n’ Roll thing but it looks great in the video. Jon and Sara both actually learned the chords/parts for the song so they could play it accurately. They’re such pros. But, my favorite part of this whole thing was how into the performance Sara got. She had already worked a full day teaching voice/piano before coming so she was already and understandably a little tired when she got there. By 11pm, she was teetering on the verge of exhaustion. But, she gave great performances take after take and was rocking out so hard she started to hurt her fingers because she kept trying to actually get sound out of the unplugged keyboard. But, as soon as Kevin once again said “action,” she was right back into it without missing a beat. Lots of hard work goes into these things and I’m grateful to people like Sara and Nate and everyone who sacrificed and pulled double duty to make these videos happen.

• The me singing to frozen “Luckey” scene - This was just fun to be a part of. Performing is my favorite part of music, even if it is fake and just for a music video. But, watching Sonora sit perfectly still for take after take was mesmerizing. I can’t say enough how wonderful a job she did in this video and this scene is the epitome of that. Being there, it almost looked like we faked it somehow. She was so good in the video she actually made me look good too. Not an easy task.

• The dancing around and singing in the town square scene - The scene where Jon, Sonora and I danced and sang in the little town square thing was shot at Portland’s Pioneer Square. Which, for those who don’t live in Portland, is a touristy spot during the day, but is just a hangout for the homeless at night. Yes, the scene looks great and it was fun to sing and dance around, but it was what happened right before that I remember vividly. Obviously surprised to see a group of young, good-looking people being filmed, everyone wanted to stop over to see what we were doing. After telling them it was for a music video, one lady decided she needed to tell us, and then sing it to prove her point, how many times Bill Withers says “I know” in the third verse “Ain’t No Sunshine.” “26 times,” she said. And then we got the full-throated rendition while she counted on her fingers. I’ll be damned, she was right and wasn’t too bad at carrying a tune.

• The car scenes - That Thunderbird, which is owned and was graciously made available for the music video by Kevin’s dad, is, by far, the nicest car I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in and pretending to drive. It’s even the exact color I would choose if I won the lottery and someone sold me a massive 3D printer that can print Thunderbirds and somehow manufacture their combustion engines and exhaust systems and recreate era-specific details with precision. Besides that, it was fun to see how scenes like this come together. Having not done any real acting in my life (and based on the videos, you can probably see why), I was unaware of the magic of Hollywood in regards to driving scenes. So, this was my lesson. Nate, who was helping us out with a little bit of everything on the shoot, got behind and starting gently rocking the car up and down. My wife, Brianne and Kevin’s wife, Sara, were on the lights. They stood on boxes and held them up as high as they could and, upon Kevin’s instruction, would swoop them around to simulate going past street lights. All while I alternated between pretending to sing and pretending to look forlorn, which is essentially just my standard Bruce-Springsteen-from-the-Darkness-on-the-Edge-of-Town-album-cover look. Sitting in a beautiful car (that wasn’t mine) with a beautiful girl (who was only pretending to be with me) with a beautiful song playing in the background (hey! I actually get this one!), what more could a guy ask for…

• The empty wine bottle - Again, here is the photo of my mementos from the music videos. The Thriller jacket and the fake gun were from the Let’s Go Out Tonight video. The wine bottle is from this shoot for Lookin’ at Luckey. When doing the pre-shoot shopping at Target, I was just grabbing things that I thought would look good on camera. The bottle had a pretty shape and a nice label so I grabbed it. The rose inside was fine, nothing special, but I mainly just wanted it for the look. It’s featured in a intro/outro scene. But, apparently I’m a lot smarter in my subconscious mind than in real life. I missed a detail that really would’ve sold it. Sonora picked up on it during the shoot. The name on the bottle: Sofia. Damn! Totally missed an opportunity to look smart, which doesn’t come around very often for me. People thought I was thinking these things out for a minute until I was like “wait, what?” Moment over. Back to being a dumb musician…

So, those are my favorite memories from the Lookin’ at Luckey music video shoot. If you have any questions about this or anything related to the video, feel free to leave a comment below. Otherwise, tune in next week to get my thoughts on the Friday Night is for the Drinkers video.

Look how fucking cool I look… Just kidding, the car is way cooler.

Music videos are fun... aka... memories from Let's Go Out Tonight...

A week from Christmas and I have a riddle for you: what does a Thriller jacket, an empty bottle of wine, a flask and a toy gun have in common?

OK, fine. That’s not really some fancy riddle. But, the answer is: memories. Specifically, memories from the making of my music videos.

I love making music videos. I can’t wait to do more, though, without shows going, it’s a little tough to save up the money to make them. Making a music video is probably my favorite part of the whole creative process when putting out an album. Long since finished are all the tough decisions about parts and tempos and song selection and mixes and track sequencing and album art and publicity companies and t-shirt logos, etc. It’s finally time to do something creative that I don’t have to think about 24 hours a day. And yes, it is 24 hours. I dream and have fucking nightmares about making albums. It’s so stressful. It doesn’t have to be. I know plenty of people who love recording. Some even prefer it to playing live. I don’t understand them, but I do appreciate where they are coming from. No, I make it stressful upon myself. I do that with a lot of things, but especially with recording albums. It’s the legacy I will leave when I’m gone. Yes, people will have memories of me, but my music is the best of me. Yes, it’s still flawed just like I’m flawed, but it’s the purest form of me as a human being. Those songs contain everything I have. So many people compare them to children and I used to think it was dumb. But, I get it now. You do birth them, shape them in your image, give them everything you can, then release them into the world to do whatever it is they are going to do and you have little control over when they do good, bad or whatever. Songs are also meant to be commoditized and generate income for me, so I guess that’s where the analogy falls off. But, the first part works.

But, making music videos is amazing. Someone else is in charge. I just have to show up and do my part; which also doesn’t require learning lines, which I would be terrible at, I think. I just have to show up, look good and sing my own songs, which I presumably know the lines to already. Someone else tells me what to wear, where to stand, where to look, what to do with my hands; you know, everything. So, in honor of that, I want to go chronologically backwards and talk about my favorite memories from the making of each video. This week I’ll do my latest video which was for Let’s Go Out Tonight.

So, the genius behind the video for Let’s Go Out Tonight was my friend and super-talented director Kevin Pietila. If you haven’t seen the video yet:

A) What the fuck?!

B) You’re in for a treat

I think I wrote about my favorite memories from this video shoot once but I couldn’t find it relatively quickly so I gave up and here’s my new list:

• Night shoots. Turns out if you want to make a movie that takes place at night, you have to shoot at night. That meant showing up to set (set being an Airbnb in SW Washington state for the house/interior shots, the home of a very generous friend of Kevin’s for the graveyard shots, a movie theater and the music venue Holocene in Portland, OR for the performance shots) around 5:30 or 6pm to start setting up/getting into makeup. Starting to shoot around 8pm and wrapping around 4:30 or 5am. Getting makeup taken off/packing up and leaving around 6:30 or 7am. And that was three nights in a row. It was so much fun though. Especially when you get late into the next morning and people start getting loopy. Things get really funny really easily. I think I did my shitty version of the Thriller dance in the abandoned barn like 25 times in a row. It was like 3am and I’m pretty sure Kevin just needed a laugh to keep his energy going. I’ve never been more exhausted at 7am before this shoot and the only thing that would keep me energized for the drive home was blasting Kanye West’s song Waves (from Life of Pablo) and singing along at full throat. I probably listened to that song 100 times in those three days.

• Digging my own grave. Turns out the soil in the Pacific Northwest fucking sucks to dig in. It may be great for growing wine grapes but that clay-filled, rocky bullshit is a royal pain in the ass to try and dig a 4’L x3’D x 3W’ hole into. I just remember how bad the space between my thumb and forefinger hurt afterwards. I’m not joking when I say I’m pretty sure it took Kevin and I about 5-6 hours to do. But, we needed it for the the shot and Kevin’s supremely generous and amazing friend allowed us to dig it on his property and then even helped us with the shoot later that week. I’m sure he had better things to do than to run lights or the smoke machine from 9pm-2am, but I’m extremely grateful to him. I swear I’ve never tasted a better Coors than the one I had after those 5-6 hours of picking and digging up that clay.

• Being stuck in my own grave. Of course, once I dropped down into the grave, crouched into position, the plastic was draped over the top of the grave, the dirt piled on top of that…that’s the exact moment when the generator died. No generator means no lights, no smoke, no nothing. So, I was stuck in there. It was only gonna be few minutes to get it back online so I figured it was a waste to re-dig me back out, rip out the plastic roof, etc. only for me to go right back in. So, we decided I would just hang for a few until we were back online. Well, a few minutes turned into a few more and a few more and it was starting to get a little harder to breathe since I was mostly sealed up in there. My foot fell asleep and my leg cramped up. But, it was only gonna be a few more minutes. I could wait it out. Plus, the asleep foot would probably make my zombie walk more realistic and my cramped legs would make my grave rise more haggard and believable, which maybe it did. Or, I was just trying to convince myself that I was actually any good at this acting thing. Who knows? Anyways, after like 15 or so minutes (or 2 hours; at least that’s how it felt to me) everything kicked back on and we got the shot. Worth it.

• Finally, being a zombie. When Kevin came to me and said he had this crazy idea for a “zombie love story,” I asked him, “do I get to wear a Thriller jacket?” He said “yes” and I was in. Then, I got nervous as I’m definitely not an actor and this concept would require I play a believable zombie. In my other two videos, I mainly just had to look good and sing my songs, but with this one I actually had to kind of do some acting. Turns out, it was really fun. Can’t say I found a new calling in life but it was quite enjoyable. It’s funny actually, I was talking with another musician not too long ago and he too said acting in his music video was his favorite thing to do. Weird how we all want to do what others are doing… Another fun memory about being a zombie was injuring my hand while practicing being a zombie and rehearsing those Thriller moves for the video. An injury as a good memory? Why yes. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in my shitty, little apartment in Portland, OR. It was a tiny two-bedroom that was basically a one bedroom apartment where they chopped the living room in half to make another tiny bedroom. So, there wasn’t a lot of space in either of the bedrooms. I was in the “office” bedroom, the smaller of the two, and I had the Thriller video up on the computer while I tried to emulate a few moves. I finally picked two of the easiest ones, as you can see in the video around the 1:50-2:20 mark, and started practicing. I got really into trying to do the dance moves like a zombie might and didn’t realize I was a little too close to my printer and slammed my hand into its sharp, plastic corner. I tore off a pretty sizeable chunk of skin. In the video, if you look really close, you can very briefly see a band-aid on my left hand. Coming out of the grave and getting dirt in a very fresh and very much still wide open wound wasn’t fun, but again, worth it... My final good memory about being a zombie was the two hours into and the hour spent getting out of makeup. Being an Aspie (Asperger’s/”Aspie” refers to someone on the autism spectrum that is generally still high-functioning), the thought of someone touching my face and head for an extended period of time was not something I was looking forward to (haircuts are a nightmare for me. Luckily, because of Covid, my wife now has that responsibility which makes it less stressful on me), but the person who did it made it such a great experience. It’s always fun for me to watch people who are passionate about what they do. The only part that was rough was the last day when we were shooting the on-stage performance scenes. Normally, to remove the makeup, it was a slow, steady process of using makeup remover wipes and some alcohol for the tough spots since the makeup was alcohol-based. We used alcohol-based so it wouldn’t need to constantly be retouched as I sweated or crawled through the dirt. But, on that day, we were in kind of a time crunch, in part because I had locked my self out of my apartment that morning and in part because shoots are just always on the edge time-wise, so we had to move even faster. We started with the makeup on for the zombie performance shots then had to get it off as quickly as possible. But, since it was alcohol-based makeup, “as quickly as possible” meant we had to basically drench my face in rubbing alcohol and scrub. Needless to say, my face was on fire when I went back up for the “normal” Bradley shots. But, again, totally worth it.

So, the jacket and fake gun are from Let’s Go Out Tonight (the venerable Jon Fickes had the distinct pleasure of ending this zombie’s life). I hope you maybe learned something fun about the behind the scenes. If you have any questions about the video you’d like my thoughts on, feel free to leave a comment. Next week we’ll talk about Lookin’ at Luckey and a funny story about a wine bottle. I’ll see you then.

Here’s to hoping I never have to dig a grave in the Pacific Northwest ever again…

What do Women's Olympic Figure Skating, The Great British Bake Off, Meatloaf and my Music Video have in common? aka... just me and my Asperger's...

OK, so last week I promised a full-on Asperger’s mind journey, and that’s just what you’re gonna get this week. For those who don’t know, I have Asperger’s which is basically means I’m high-functioning with low-level Autism. Because I’m lower on the spectrum, the symptoms aren’t quite as obvious to others (or myself, for years) but they’re mostly all still there in their various shapes and ways they rear their ugly heads. Like repetitive behavior (like how I eat the same thing for lunch every day: two eggs, shredded chicken, spinach and salsa verde evenly divided between three corn tortillas with tortilla chips on the side. Or how after a show, I always come home and have a glass, or two, of bourbon and big scoop of cottage cheese. Weird, I know but that’s what I have to do), obsessive/repetitive interests (how late at night, before going to bed, I need my fix of Rick & Morty despite having played through all the episodes at least 12 times, with some episodes nearing 50 views or how I once listened to nothing but Open Mike Eagle’s “VERY MUCH MONEY” for almost a month. Luckily, no one had to share a car with me on any road trips that month…) and difficulties with social interaction/non-verbal communication (how small talk is extremely difficult, but if you wanted to, say, MAKE LISTS OF UNIMPORTANT THINGS or hear me rant about how much I hate plastic and the oil industry or hear a profanity-laced rant about HOW FIGURE SKATER MEDVEDEVA GOT SCREWED OUT OF A GOLD MEDAL AT THE LAST WINTER OLYMPICS, yes, I’m still pissed about that; all of those would be easy for me). All of which is to say, I’m wildly off topic and we haven’t even started… So, we might as well get going…

1) The Great British Bake Off - Season 10 - Why does Paul Hollywood hate Steph so much?

I know, you’re like “what?” Bradley likes baking shows? Well, kind of. I like this one (especially since the reboot with Richmond from IT Crowd, or whatever his real name is) and the holiday ones that are coming up soon. But that aside, Paul continually tries to put Steph in the middle to possibly going home range but she’s won star baker like 4-5 times this year, including a three in a row run in the middle of the season. Why is he looking to boot her out? He even snubbed her a handshake, which is a big deal for those who don’t watch, happens only 1-2 times per year for doing really fantastically well, then had what appeared to be a make-up handshake the next week and gave out a second right after to make it not seem as important. Seems like he was told by the producers he had to, so he did another to water it down. I’ve never like Paul but I especially don’t after this season. Why can’t Steph just be awesome and kick ass this season? Why is he trying to poo-poo her as the clear front-runner? I don’t get it but it’s been bothering me so I’ve been bringing it up unprompted as much as possible to try and uncover the answer to this riddle.

2) Why isn’t Meatloaf more revered as an artist?

In his heyday, he was essentially a mix of Elton John and Bruce Springsteen. I mean, come the fuck on WITH HOW AWESOME THIS SHIT IS. What a voice. I love every minute of this. I actually just had to stop writing so I could just sit and watch this in its’ entirety (for like the thousandth time…). Though it is a kinda bullshit that they replaced the actual singer for an actor for the video because she was “prettier” but that’s for another rant. And he had some other huge hits as well. Sure, his reign at the top was short-lived compared to his peers and most people my age remember him for either Fight Club or as the bouncer in Wayne’s World. And that’s fair, he was awesome in both of those. But artists that burned this bright, for however long they did, should be celebrated. Maybe I’m wrong but most of the time when I bring up Meatloaf I get scoffs or blank stares. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s like Peter Frampton, you had to be there. And if you were, you bought the record and the T-shirt, but if you weren’t, they didn’t stand the test of time for one reason or another.

3) World Series - Why did everyone assume the Astros would roll over the Nationals?

Look, this series isn’t over, though it could be tonight, but I was astounded to see how heavily favored the Astros were. The Nats proved they can hit anyone, have high-level pitching and ran through the National League (including my Brewers in the Wild Card game). Juan Soto is already a star who looks like he got Ted Williams plate discipline (at times), David Ortiz’s knack for big hits in big games, and a swing like Ken Griffey Jr.’s. (OK, it doesn’t really look like that, but the ball jumps off his bat in a similar way and I can tell the kid is having fun like Jr. did). And the Nats have a big 3 when it comes to pitch, same as the Astros. I still think the Astros will win the Series but I always assumed it to go 6 or 7, where the more talented team wins out. Still fucking weird that a home team hasn’t won a game yet.. And, props to the Nats fans for their “reception” of Trump. There’s a reason he rarely ventures out into the public in the D.C. area…

4) It’s Almost Halloween so… The Music Video for “Let’s Go Out Tonight” is back in season!

"Let's Go Out Tonight" by Bradley Wik and the Charlatans

From the album "In My Youth, I'm Getting Old..."

Written and Directed by Kevin Pietila

Starring Alysse Fozmark with Gina McCammon and Jade Swim as the friends/zombie dancers

Thanks to: Jon Fickes, David Solomon and Sara Morris for backing me up on stage

Man, that was fun to make. I know, the Michael Jackson references may seem weird these days, but we shot this just before the new doc came out. I’m not trying to state my preference one way or another, just trying to honor one of my favorite artists and their impact on me as an artist. That aside, my favorite memories of this video shoot:

• How excited I was when the amazing director/writer Kevin Pietila came up with this zombie theme for a song about two people trying to figure it out in a relationship. I was an immediate “yes” and so excited to do something I could have never thought of myself.

• Digging the grave (my own grave, as it were) was way fucking harder than it should have been due to the stupid clay/rocky soil in the Northwest. It was fun though and I don’t think a Coors ever tasted so good than after 4-5 hours of digging/picking that damn ground.

• 2+ hours into and over an hour to get out of the makeup wasn’t my favorite but it was fun to watch the awesome makeup artists do their art on me and the others. I love to watch passionate people do their thing and I got an up close and personal view of that during this process.

• I felt I did a pretty fucking good zombie in this video, raising the number of my acting skills to 3: looking sad/confused/bereft of emotion (aka my picture face. Check out the intro to the “LOOKIN’ AT LUCKEY” MUSIC VIDEO when “Luckey” walks in to see what I’m referring to), leading an unplugged/pretend band in videos (though we actually did finally play a show together last year) and being a zombie.

• How people generously let us use their house and land to film all through the night. I’m sure people had other things to do from 6pm-7am but we’re so grateful for their awesomeness and support.

• Finally, how when I finally crawled into the grave, had the dirt shoveled on top of me, was literally buried underground and got ready to shoot the coming out of the grave scene, of course, the generator went down; so no lights, smoke, etc. Because it looked good, we decided I should stay underground to save time so we didn’t have to restage it. Unfortunately, it took what I thought was an hour (probably more like 15 minutes) to get everything back ready to shoot. But, worth it.

Anyways, I have other things to do, so I’ll leave it there.

(dictated but not read)

Kevin and I digging my grave. Turns out the Northwest has super shitty soil, unless you’re trying to grow grapes to make wine.

Taxes, Music Videos and Albums... aka the highs and lows of music

Now that it’s everyone’s favorite time of the year, tax time, I’ve been reflecting on what I spent my money on to further my music career in 2018. 2018 was a strange year. So was 2017… But that’s another story. 2018 was the year I made not one but two MUSIC VIDEOS, which is by far my best memory of 2018. If I could make a music video for every song I write, I would. But alas, they’re also quite expensive (even with our director taking on the duties, ha!, I said “doody,” of production, casting, editing, and lighting supervisor/camera work on “Luckey.” Kevin Pietila is an amazing man) and require an immense amount of pre-production, scheduling and luck (who thought it would rain in July?). I’m not sure I’m the best actor (though, I did do a pretty good zombie, I must say…) but I know I had a blast throughout both shoots. It’s been the most fun I think I’ve had making something in years…

Albums are stressful. They’re not fun to make (at least in my experience) as they are so personal, require so much energy, thought, time (in rehearsals leading up to, actual recording time, mixing, stressing about the mixes until your ears fall off and you’ve picked apart everything only to realize you should trust your mixing engineer more since he’s good at this and I have Meniere’s Disease and don’t always hear things accurately, stressing about which songs to put on vs. leave off, stressing about the order of the tracklist, the album art, the weight of the vinyl for pressing and pretty much everything else…) and, again, money. No album has truly sounded 100% like I had hoped going in. Though I believe that to be an unachievable goal. Each one has “felt” the way I intended but nothing can ever be perfect, even when the goal is imperfection like on “In My Youth, I’m Getting Old…”

I’m doing something no musician should ever do. It’s bound to drive you insane, which has started I confess. It’s a bonafide way to make you hate yourself, question everything you do and take way too long… But, I’m writing, recording, producing, mixing and art directing my next couple albums. I want to control everything start to finish (except mastering because I’d be wasting my time and energy since Ed Brooks can make my music sound eons, I know, a measure of time, not quality, but still, eons better than I could ever even dream of) and finally make something exactly how I want to. I’ve started and stopped recording the songs three times now, each time restarting with some new songs and new sounds. I think I finally have the group of songs and the sounds where I want them and am ready to do it for a fourth and final time. It’ll be a record for those who suffer from depression, loneliness, have Asperger’s or some combination of those three. No, you don’t have to experience those things (and I hope you don’t, except Asperger’s as there are some pretty great upsides since I’m not too far out on the spectrum) to understand and love the record. There are beautiful songs, stories and soundscapes to take in as well. There are also ugly songs, stories and soundscapes to absorb. It’s the first of three self-recorded/produced/mixed albums I have planned, including a project I’ve wanted to do since I was 18, which by the demos has been described as fun-but-depressing-folk-space-pop…

Anyhow, I’m in Phoenix enjoying some time with amazing friends so why the fuck am I still blathering on??

(dictated but not read)

Music Video Notes and shit...

So, the Packers shat the bed once again. Just like last week, they had the chance to dethrone one of the best teams in the league and decided to fuck themselves over. I don't want to rant and rave about it (I've done that for at least 4 or 5 hours over the past 24 hours) but it's so goddamn frustrating to give games like this away. It's also weird that our defense is playing better than our offense, which has Aaron Fucking Rodgers. Color me confused as fuck. That's a phrase, right? Anyways, some good/music news...

Many thanks to Adobe and Teardrops (click HERE or on the image below):

And to Americana Daily (click HERE or on the image below):

For supporting the release of our newest music video for “Let’s Go Out Tonight.” Here’s a few thoughts I had about the making of the video:

“Turns out it’s not easy to make a zombie-themed music video.  From finding the right DP and makeup artist to bring our zombie rom-com to life, to finding the perfect “Thriller” looking house, the director and I digging a real grave in someone’s backyard (Oregon dirt is mostly clay with lots of rocks in it…), the 2+ hours of having alcohol-based makeup, since it was still raining in July (God bless Oregon), slathered on my face, neck and hands plus the 1+ hour of washing my skin with alcohol to get it back off, practicing “Thriller” dance moves in my apartment and injuring my hand so badly that I now have a scar for the rest of my life (long story), to all the overnight shoots, it wasn’t your typical music video.  I was buried underground for 20 minutes while we waited for the lighting, effects and weather to all play together for the perfect shot, and I loved it; which was good since that was only the first of many takes…

But, God bless Kevin Pietila, the director, since he had the vision and the passion to keep the cast and crew focused and performing at our best, not an easy task at 4 or 5am when everyone is starting to feel the lack of sleep and we’re trying to beat the light for one last shot. And God bless the crew, keeping the generators, lights, effects, makeup and playback going while moving everything in and out of tents due to the intermittent rain.  And the Holocene in Portland was great and patient as we shot for much longer than anticipated there.

And damn, did I look awesome in that “Thriller” jacket or what…”

NEW MUSIC VIDEO AND VIDEO RELEASE PARTY!!

AHHHH, REAL MONSTERS (anyone love that show as much as I do?)! Why do I say that?? You’ll find out if you check out the WORLD PREMIERE OF “LET’S GO OUT TONIGHT” THE MUSIC VIDEO AT SURVIVING THE GOLDEN AGE BY CLICKING HERE OR ON THE PICTURE:

Also, our music video release party will be held at the Lake Theater in Lake Oswego, OR Friday, November 9th. Music from Sara Morris, Brianne Kathleen and Bradley Wik will start at 8pm followed by commentary from director/writer of said videos, Kevin Pietila, before we show both “Lookin’ at Luckey” and “Let’s Go Out Tonight” on the BIG SCREEN!!! Fun is guaranteed to be had by all. Music, booze, amazing music videos, what else do you need?! Oh, a sexy host, you might say. Well, don’t you worry, Bradley will be there and may or may not take his pants off… Just sayin’…

Umm, I got married... aka sorry that I'm not sorry about being lazy with the blog...

I apologize as I've been lazy as shit keeping up with this blog and (not) doing my YOUTUBE videos as promised but it turns out getting married and jet-setting off to Paris for a couple weeks will fuck up your schedule.  So, yes I am now officially married.  Even got the damn marriage license today which was conveniently approved on 9/11/2018 so 9/11 is now forever even more a part of my life.  For the record, we didn't get married on 9/11, that's just when the state of New York finally got around to verifying our claim of marriage.   Strange.  But, the actual wedding was my favorite ever.  Yes, I'm extremely fucking biased but there you have it.  We did it in Central Park in New York City and wore our fucking wedding clothes all day while we got pictures in the Park, the MoMA, at our dinner in Little Italy, and finally for (way too many) drinks back up around Columbus (fuck Columbus.  I'm half Native American for first time readers.  And legit half, not "my grandma was part Cherokee so I'm like 1/64th or something" Native American.) Circle.  Anyways, I'll talk more about this in future iterations.  But, immediately after that the fucking music video came out and I've been planning some things to go along with that AND the second music video, dun, dun, duun!  Oh, you didn't know there was a second music video?  Well... Fuck... Then... OK, now you do.  I guess it wasn't that dramatic except this one is even more crazy and wonderful.  I can't wait to release it to the world.  Same director as on "Lookin' at Luckey" so you know it's gonna be fucking awesome.  Kevin Pietila is a goddamn wizard with the music videos.  I wish I could hire him to make one for every song but I could definitely not afford that.  Fucking money always getting in the way...

Anyways, I'm sorry this is brief and I don't have a better update, but I assure you I will in two weeks.  Next week, I'm visiting my brother in Wisconsin so I'll have better things to do than make a video blog or put a lot of thought into writing one.  Namely, drink and watch the Packers game.  And no, don't ask me about this fucking Packers-Vikings game from last week...  Seriously, don't...  Jesus...  All I will say is that I think the "holding" aka guy is falling down and the lineman makes sure of such call against Lane Taylor on the Jimmy Graham TD is just as big a misstep as the phantom roughing the passer call on Clay Matthews III.  Either correct call would've ended the game in the Packers' favor.  Just sayin'...

Also, the past two weeks I've been repeatedly re-listening to the S-TOWN PODCAST for some reason.  I don't know why I'm obsessed with listening to it for a 6th or 7th time but that's fucking Asperger's for you; which John B definitely has.  Just sayin'...

Anyhow, if you haven't seen the video for Lookin' at Luckey yet, Jesus fuck it's awesome, so here it is:

It's here! It's finally here!! aka... "Lookin' at Luckey," the video...

As promised, here it is fuckers:

This brings back wonderful memories of:

- How perfectly Sonora embodied "Luckey" for those three days of shooting.  I felt as if I was back with the real "Luckey" the whole time

- Brianne and Sara shining lights past the Thunderbird while Nate rocked it up and down, over and over and over...

- Sonora sitting perfectly still, take after take, for those shots in the living room of me rocking out

- Sara hitting her (not plugged in) keyboard so hard it made her fingers hurt trying to get noise out of it

- Sharing those wonderful bottles of water-wine on the roof

- The lady in the park who repeatedly demonstrated how many times Bill Withers says "I know" in "Ain't No Sunshine"

- Those Fucking Jibs

- The wonderfully weird boat parade on the Willamette River that night

- How much Kelly's Olympian didn't give a fuck

- How smoking way too many cigarettes in a row feels

- How many times someone commented on how I look like Ryan Adams

- How I loved it every time someone commented on how I look like Ryan Adams (one of my favorite artists ever)

- Getting to sit in an actual Thunderbird and how unworthy I was

- Thinking of how many fucking talented people were in that apartment that night

I could never thank Kevin Pietila enough for taking my Asperger's, non-visual memories of Luckey and somehow creating this.  It is beyond my comprehension how talented he is.

I am so grateful to all the talented people involved:  Kevin Pietila, Sara Morris, Brianne Kathleen, Jon Fickes, Sonora Mindwerl, Nate Ernst, Colby and, of course, me (just kidding, kind of).  They say it takes a village, but we did it with less people, more hard work and more skill.  But most of all, we did it...

Fucking Finally! "Lookin' at Luckey" music video this week!!!

EDITORS NOTE:  I apologize for the false start. We ran into an issue with the promotion/premiere/timeline and the video was not released on Friday as expected.  It will, come hell or high water, be released this week as I'm exhausted and it needs to see the light of day.  Goddamn, we need some good luck on this album soon as it's been snakebitten since the beginning...  It's coming though, I assure you.  Things are looking up.  They have to.  There's no other way to go...

Finally, after months of teasing you fuckers, the official video for "Lookin' at Luckey" is about to be real!  I know you've been waiting for it, as have I, but it's better than you think.  For serious.  Fucking hell.  If you haven't already, subscribe to Bradley Wik's YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/bradleywik.  That's where the video will be in addition to this very website, bradleywik.com.  So many amazing people worked on this thing, it would be a shame to not watch and enjoy the fuck out of this video.  For those who still are on the fence, here's a still from the upcoming video:

Bradley and "Luckey"/Sonora

So, again, "Lookin' at Luckey" the official music video will be out this Friday, 8/31.  Stay tuned for more updates...

Fucking music videos and being sick aka... fuck my (awesome) life...

Being sick sucks.  Like really fucking sucks.  I just might be the biggest baby when it comes to being sick.  I was sick before the music video shoot, kind of during (though adrenaline and the need to get it done are great masking agents; just like the double doses/four pills of NyQuil, a shot of bourbon and way too much coffee) and, of course, again after.  Staying up all night for two nights then waking up early (read:  six hours of sleep in three days) for the next day are not a plan for good health.  But, it is a plan for making a fun as hell music video.  The concept and script were fun as shit.  I felt bad as the director, DP (director of photography, also known as the camera operator, lighting director and eyes of the film) and second AC (second assistant camera), as well as the lighting and setup crew had to work their fucking asses off as I got to relish being an actor.

This video definitely allowed me to display my acting skills much more than the last one, by nature of the theme and script.  I fucking loved it.  I also happen to be really fucking awesome (read:  not bad) at it.  I am sad that we are almost done with the video (we have one more short night of shooting) but enjoyed every minute of it so far.  I wish I could tell you more but I don't want to spoil it and the surprises along the way.  Needless to say, it'll be great and you'll love it.

What you won't love is the Meniere's attack I had right before the filming, which went away during shooting (thank God!) and the fact that it's 8pm and I can barely keep my eyes open as the lack of sleep and illness is taking over.  Plus, somehow a wart on my face may (or may not) be getting infected as a barely visible mark is now swollen and painful...  Jesus, it's been a week.  Plus, I'm headed to Arizona to enjoy some of that 115 degree heat...  Not...  Well, I am going to Arizona, but no, I won't be enjoying the heat...

If I had more energy I would make one of those videos I promised on YouTube that I still haven't delivered on where I would rant about Kanye being the second most important artist of my lifetime or why I feel like all cats have autism...  Maybe next week.  This week, I'm glad I'm still alive and I'm going to go finish watching the new season of Kimmy Schmidt...  Fuck it...

But, here's a still of me and a beautiful girl in a car way too nice for the both of us from the (first) "Lookin' at Luckey" video which will be out in the next month (notice my doofy singing face. Singing is never graceful on stills...):

I know, that has nothing to do with the new video but you'll see this one sooner bitches...

It's fucked up to dig your own grave... aka music videos are the best

It's strange to dig your own grave.  The work that goes into making a hole big enough, especially in the shitty, clay-infested Oregon soil, sucks fucking ass.  Even with someone's help, it isn't a quick endeavor.  My biggest alibi against any murder case is the director of my latest music video, who can vouch for my inability and "inadequataquatulence" to bury people at the depth necessary to avoid detection.  Also, you realize the soft person you've become by the pain in between your thumb and pointer finger after digging a 4 and 1/2' deep hole.  We could've gone deeper, but fuck it (ha! Butt fuck it!), we were tired.  To be honest, it was kind of fun.  I miss doing manual labor and it's more fun given the reason:  a music video.  My good friend Kevin Pietila is an amazing director/writer and came up with this fucking fantastic video idea for "Let's Go Out Tonight," which I couldn't be more fucking happy about.  Kevin's script is amazing, we have people flying up from L.A. to help shoot the video and some amazing actors/dancers/choreographers to help as well.  I feel like such a Rock Star and can't wait to blow them all away with my acting...  Jesus, I'm talented but I'm so fucking glad someone wrote something so fucking badass.  I'm so blessed to know talented muthafuckers who believe in me and my music.  Life is great sometimes.  Only sometimes...  But, now is one of those times.  I'll let y'all fuckers know how it's going and how awesome I am.  Pretty fucking awesome is my guess.  Check this shit out:

That's a fucking hard day's work, capped off by some Coors Banquet Beers and french fries.  After two hours of digging, that shit never tasted so sweet. Not sure why musicians like to act and actors like to play musicians but seems like we're all fucked up in the same ways, so it probably helps.  We'll find out next week...

"Lookin' at Luckey" the live-action version aka... music videos are awesome

"Lookin' at Luckey" comes alive!

 

(editors note:  this was supposed to go up Tuesday.  Not sure why it didn't.  Fucking computers and internet things...)

GREEN BAY PACKERS WEEKLY UPDATE:

Unfortunately, I was unable to watch a single second of the Packers game as I was busy doing this:

"What does making funny faces in bars have to do with not watching the Packers?" you may ask.  And you'd be right, if I wasn't being filmed doing it.  Because then it's cool and it's called a music video...

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC:

I was shooting a music video for "Lookin' at Luckey" this past weekend which was a fucking blast.  I got to work with some amazing people including the absurdly brilliant writer/director, KEVIN PIETILA, and the beyond beautiful and wonderfully-talented lead actress, SONORA MINDWERL.  And that's not including my other ridiculously awesome friends SARA MORRIS, BRIANNE KATHLEEN and A VIEW OF EARTH FROM THE MOON'S VERY OWN (JUST LIKE) JON FICKES.  It was truly a blessing to have so much artistic energy in the room(s) when making this fucker.  I had such a fun time despite learning that I am not quite as brilliant an actor as I assumed I once was.  That honor goes to Sonora and Jon Fickes, who were wonderful when "action" was called.  Give me a guitar, mic and a crowd and I'm in my element.  Give me words to say and a camera in my face and... not my element so much.  Although, I used to do a fantastic Jack Black/Tenacious D-type impression given the right audience.  I passed my high school speech class with a Bob Marley song ("Redemption Song") and Jack Black inspired improvised speech/performance.  I was tasked with performing this improvised speech in front of my whole graduating class later on, which I guess means it was pretty good.  So, I have that going for me, which is nice...

We did a lot of amazing things during the video but perhaps my favorite was this:

What a beautiful car that I am so undeserving to even sit in...  This Thunderbird was amazing.  It's lucky you can't see below the waist on these shots.  Boners upon boners...

Anyways, more updates for you soon... So tired... Who knew video shoots were more draining than recording sessions?