We were supposed to release this video on February 11th, 2013 when the song officially was released to radio. However, something really cool happened: radio stations across the United States began adding "Everything I Am" to their playlist early!!!
So what were we to do? Well we thought it would be cool to release to video early! OK, OK...we couldn't wait...we were DYING for a reason to release the video!
So here it is. Take a gander, share it on Facebook, Twitter, and all those other places we can't keep up on out there in Cyber Space. And just because we feel like we can't say it enough, "Thank You for helping make our dreams come true!"
And if you have time, here's the "behind the scenes" story:
It was mid-July 2011. Yes, we shot this video clear back in 2011! It's been nothing but hurdle after hurdle to get this video put together!
Hurdle number 1: A friend of ours, Lucas Reed, had arranged for us to shoot the school scenes at a private school close to us. However, a couple days before the shoot the contact starts acting weird and basically stops returning phone calls, texts, and emails. Yeah it's a chicken way out but welcome to modern day American culture!
In a desperate moment I emailed our Pastor at Lakeshore Christian Church, Randy Cordell. It was a "wing and a prayer" moment. I didn't expect a reply, but I got one! Pastor Randy had immediately made some calls and within 10 minutes of me sending him the email he was calling me saying, "Donelson Christian Academy would be glad to have you guys come over and use their facilities". Thank you Pastor Randy, Thank you Donelson Christian Academy, and Thank you Jesus!
Hurdle number 2: How many kids do you know that don't want to be in a music video? Evidently most the Youth Group at Lakeshore Christian Church are! So instead of having the halls filled with Students like we dreamed...we had to get creative. We also had to burn a tank of fuel running all over the greater Nashville area shuttling kids because we were desperate and it was either that or...well, nothing!
Hurdle number 3: This wasn't as much of a hurdle as it was a close encounter with death. As we were on the railroad tracks setting up, with the generator blaring, the playback music blaring, the Director (KJ Lynch) focusing on lighting and checking the camera, we hear my right hand man in all things NEELY, Mr. Kenny Schneider, yell, "Train!!!!!!!". Here's the deal. Those trains are rolling at 55+ mph. We were rushing to get lighting off the tracks. One set of lights remained all the way across 2 sets of tracks tethered by an extension chord. We had already lost a lot of money on fuel trying to get kids to the school shoot...I'll be darned if I'm gonna lose a $10 construction light attached to a $10 extension chord (yes, that was dripping with sarcasm). In a last ditch effort I yanked the extension chord and whipped the chord and light across the tracks. The chord survived. The light...well, it didn't like being yanked across two sets of tracks. The good thing is Ginger Eckart was there taking some photos (she's an AMAZING photographer) and her husband Greg was with her. Greg became our bodyguard\train spotter. Kenny, in fear of railroad police coming to write us a citation, hid in the bushes of the Holiday Inn Express across the street for the remainder of the shoot. Fortunately only one construction light was lost in the shooting of this video and no citations were issued by the train police.
Hurdle number 4: Editing. We shot the video in July. KJ Lynch thought he'd have us a finished project by September 2011. Problem...KJ is VERY talented and his business BLEW UP! He became so busy that our project continually got pushed to the back burner. Rightfully so because we were trying to find a time to release the single to radio and coordinate that with the video release and maybe use a publicist. Oh and don't forget that I can't focus on anything more that 10 seconds (yes I've walked around the house doing random chores at least 4 times during this writing). Finally I just called KJ and said, "Brother, just give me the raw files and we will find another way to edit this". Yeah add that one to my already full plate and it gets...no where fast! This is December 2011.
Hallelujah! The story takes a turn. We have finished the "radio cut" of the song "Complete" and we are dreaming to do a music video of it because we are releasing it to radio June 2012. Sitting at a Men's Bible Study at Panera Bread...literally 100 yards up the hill from the near fatal train tracks...I meet a guy by the name of Marco Villalobos. I'm not going to go through all the details of how we found out that I was wanting to do a music video and he shoots them...it happened.
So we raised money to shoot and edit "Complete". On a whim I asked Marco if he would do a package deal and edit "Everything I Am" cause I didn't want to lose all the time, effort, and money we put into that project. He worked a deal and we got the video from him September of 2012.
Yes, we have patiently been waiting to release this video since September of 2012! That gave us time to plan out the release of "Everything I Am" to radio at the same time. Did we use a publicist? Shoooooot! Who do you think we are? Mr & Mrs Moneybags? Do you realize that most publicists want a $1,000 per month retainer for a minimum of 3 months?!?!
On that note, if any of you out there are in fact Mr & Mrs Moneybags and want to adopt a Rock Duo we will get the paperwork in the mail :)
Thanks again for making the dreams of two small town kids come true!
Jeremy & Kaci
So what were we to do? Well we thought it would be cool to release to video early! OK, OK...we couldn't wait...we were DYING for a reason to release the video!
So here it is. Take a gander, share it on Facebook, Twitter, and all those other places we can't keep up on out there in Cyber Space. And just because we feel like we can't say it enough, "Thank You for helping make our dreams come true!"
And if you have time, here's the "behind the scenes" story:
It was mid-July 2011. Yes, we shot this video clear back in 2011! It's been nothing but hurdle after hurdle to get this video put together!
Hurdle number 1: A friend of ours, Lucas Reed, had arranged for us to shoot the school scenes at a private school close to us. However, a couple days before the shoot the contact starts acting weird and basically stops returning phone calls, texts, and emails. Yeah it's a chicken way out but welcome to modern day American culture!
In a desperate moment I emailed our Pastor at Lakeshore Christian Church, Randy Cordell. It was a "wing and a prayer" moment. I didn't expect a reply, but I got one! Pastor Randy had immediately made some calls and within 10 minutes of me sending him the email he was calling me saying, "Donelson Christian Academy would be glad to have you guys come over and use their facilities". Thank you Pastor Randy, Thank you Donelson Christian Academy, and Thank you Jesus!
Hurdle number 2: How many kids do you know that don't want to be in a music video? Evidently most the Youth Group at Lakeshore Christian Church are! So instead of having the halls filled with Students like we dreamed...we had to get creative. We also had to burn a tank of fuel running all over the greater Nashville area shuttling kids because we were desperate and it was either that or...well, nothing!
Hurdle number 3: This wasn't as much of a hurdle as it was a close encounter with death. As we were on the railroad tracks setting up, with the generator blaring, the playback music blaring, the Director (KJ Lynch) focusing on lighting and checking the camera, we hear my right hand man in all things NEELY, Mr. Kenny Schneider, yell, "Train!!!!!!!". Here's the deal. Those trains are rolling at 55+ mph. We were rushing to get lighting off the tracks. One set of lights remained all the way across 2 sets of tracks tethered by an extension chord. We had already lost a lot of money on fuel trying to get kids to the school shoot...I'll be darned if I'm gonna lose a $10 construction light attached to a $10 extension chord (yes, that was dripping with sarcasm). In a last ditch effort I yanked the extension chord and whipped the chord and light across the tracks. The chord survived. The light...well, it didn't like being yanked across two sets of tracks. The good thing is Ginger Eckart was there taking some photos (she's an AMAZING photographer) and her husband Greg was with her. Greg became our bodyguard\train spotter. Kenny, in fear of railroad police coming to write us a citation, hid in the bushes of the Holiday Inn Express across the street for the remainder of the shoot. Fortunately only one construction light was lost in the shooting of this video and no citations were issued by the train police.
Hurdle number 4: Editing. We shot the video in July. KJ Lynch thought he'd have us a finished project by September 2011. Problem...KJ is VERY talented and his business BLEW UP! He became so busy that our project continually got pushed to the back burner. Rightfully so because we were trying to find a time to release the single to radio and coordinate that with the video release and maybe use a publicist. Oh and don't forget that I can't focus on anything more that 10 seconds (yes I've walked around the house doing random chores at least 4 times during this writing). Finally I just called KJ and said, "Brother, just give me the raw files and we will find another way to edit this". Yeah add that one to my already full plate and it gets...no where fast! This is December 2011.
Hallelujah! The story takes a turn. We have finished the "radio cut" of the song "Complete" and we are dreaming to do a music video of it because we are releasing it to radio June 2012. Sitting at a Men's Bible Study at Panera Bread...literally 100 yards up the hill from the near fatal train tracks...I meet a guy by the name of Marco Villalobos. I'm not going to go through all the details of how we found out that I was wanting to do a music video and he shoots them...it happened.
So we raised money to shoot and edit "Complete". On a whim I asked Marco if he would do a package deal and edit "Everything I Am" cause I didn't want to lose all the time, effort, and money we put into that project. He worked a deal and we got the video from him September of 2012.
Yes, we have patiently been waiting to release this video since September of 2012! That gave us time to plan out the release of "Everything I Am" to radio at the same time. Did we use a publicist? Shoooooot! Who do you think we are? Mr & Mrs Moneybags? Do you realize that most publicists want a $1,000 per month retainer for a minimum of 3 months?!?!
On that note, if any of you out there are in fact Mr & Mrs Moneybags and want to adopt a Rock Duo we will get the paperwork in the mail :)
Thanks again for making the dreams of two small town kids come true!
Jeremy & Kaci
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