Yeah, they took down my entire site, but so what?!? I’m on a mission people. One video/song (minimum) every Sunday for one year. That’s 52 videos (minimum) from May 2008 to May 2009.
I hope you didn’t think losing all 316,000 views for my “Obama Obama” video, or the 4500+ views for my “The N!@@er Song” would cause me to go crying off into the sunset.
And yeah, who cares if you messed up my advertising plan for my album – I STILL sold a few copies, and guess what? I’m going to sell even MORE once the videos come out — on YOUR site!!
So… with that said, this week’s video is already in the can. It’s from one of the songs off “The A.P.T. LP”, a hot dance song with a bangin’ beat and some… interesting… lyrics and scenarios. Yeah – that’s all I want to say about it for now!
Okay, I’m done! And HA HA HA to YouTube – you can’t stop a man with a dream, people!!
I spent over 32 hours straight the 2 days before (from Saturday til Sunday morning) editing my album, “The A.P.T. LP,” with no sleep, resulting in me not feeling too good on Monday. But that wasn’t the bad part. No, the bad part was when I went to check on my YouTube views, only to discover that my page had been taken down.
No page, no videos, no views… and, most importantly, NO advertising for my album.
Yes, all those videos I had that included links to my site where people could get my albums and mixtapes were taken down. Takes quite a toll on your album sales when you can’t even tell people where to find your stuff.
So, what do I do now?
Rebuild. Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild!
I went back and read the terms and conditions of YouTube, and have a few theories as to why they may have taken my stuff down. One, I had quite a few videos up where I used other people’s beats without permission. Two, I was advertising my products on the site, mentioning the price in the process. Apparently if you’re not paying YouTube for ad space you aren’t allowed to do that. And three – and this is my uncle’s theory – someone from either McCain or Obama’s campaign took it down. My site was getting a LOT of attention and subscribers, and, with the Democratic/Republican conventions happening this week and next week, more and more people would probably be seeing my videos – and lord knows that might be disastrous for their campaigns!
Regardless of the reason though, I always like to learn lessons from my mistakes. The first lesson: if you’re going to use other people’s beats, get a license saying you can do so. That way, you can legally use them and not have your stuff taken down.
The second lesson: don’t put your eggs all in one basket. I placed all my videos on YouTube, but didn’t even consider uploading them to MySpace, photobucket, or other sites where it would have been hard for them to take down every post I had out there.
And the third lesson: utilize MySpace more. The site is set up so musicians can advertise and/or legally sell their music. Now that I know how to gain friends on the site, it should be easier for me advertising-wise to get to more people, and, hopefully, sell a few albums.
Am I down about all this? A lil’ bit – I had high expectations for how this whole album would roll out, and now I have to re-think my strategy on how to get people to know my stuff is out there. But hey, I’ve always been a person able to get knocked down, pick himself back up and try again, and this time is no different.
By the way, my new YouTube site address is www.youtube.com/APTsongs. There’s always a chance it could be taken down, but for now it works. In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out a way to re-post up my videos on this site – because wordpress doesn’t allow for HTML code, I can’t just load up the vids at another site and paste them on here. Worst-case scenario, I move all this stuff to blogger.com, where HTML code is appreciated!
Now that I’ve finished the video for another one of my “The O-Bama Mixtape” songs (“I’m Gonna Make It”), I am now in full promo mode for the album, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m still mixing, mastering, recording and pasting together songs… but I’ve always been a last-minute person, so even though I’m doing all of this stuff within a week’s time, the album is going to be HOT when it’s done!
Okay, so since I’m not signed to a label, I have to do my own advertising and hype. One of the ways I’m doing this is by making promo videos each day this week to give my fans insights into the album as well as my life. It’s advertising 101, basically: the more people know about you, the more likely they are to buy what you’re selling. Plus, I like the idea that I can talk about myself and people actually want to listen!
Here is the first video I made this morning:
Also, I’ve discovered that more people go to my MySpace page than this site to check up on me. I like WordPress, but they don’t allow you to post up html code as easily for certain things like MySpace does. For example, my “The O-Bama Mixtape” was downloaded onto Datpiff.com, where people can actually hear the mixtape before they download it. I’d love to post it here, but all I’d be able to do is post a link to the site vs. the actual box containing the music on my page. And, as you may know, people are lazy – they’d rather go to a site where everything is incorporated on it instead of having to click links to leave the site, then come back again.
With that said, I’m still keeping this site open, but I’ll be doing a lot more stuff on MySpace now. I have over 600 friends there right now, and that number is growing rapidly everyday (thanks, in part, to a Friend Blaster program I have where I can send up to 400 friends request out each day).
That’s all for now – buy the album, “The A.P.T. LP,” Sunday, August 24th!
This is one of those rare blogs on this site… that isn’t about me. It’s about YOU.
Now that I’m 26, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: people around my age start living in the world of “reality.” It’s the world of 9-to-5 jobs that are unsatisfying, marriages that aren’t all that happy, and sad lives slowly wasting away as the dreams people once had become nothing more than unfulfilled fantasies that they no longer try to go after.
It’s all very, very depressing to me.
I was a theater major while at Hampton University, and all my fellow thespians had the same dream: to become famous and make it big in some aspect of the entertainment field (theater, movies, commercials, music, etc.). That was back in 2000 when we were all freshman with idealized thoughts about how easy it would be for us to land parts on stage or in film.
Fast-forward 8 years later, and many of those same people are not doing anything involving entertainment. Instead of becoming that great actress, they’ve settled for being a teacher (and, as I always say, those that don’t know, teach!). Instead of traveling the world, they’ve become young parents who use raising their children as an excuse to not pursue their own dreams. Instead of being a touring musician, they’ve put all their musical instruments into the attic, and replaced them with a tie, a briefcase, and 8 hours-a-day of pure torture.
If only these people hadn’t given up so fast! Many of my peers had such potential when I saw them in plays, or doing dance routines or music sessions, that it just sucks to see that they’ve fallen into the trap that so many people fall into: the “That dream I had can’t possibly come true” trap that is detrimental to their own beings.
People don’t realize how much God will help them out if they only keep going at it. They don’t like to wait for results; they figure, if they can’t achieve their dream within the first few tries, they might as well throw in the towel and forget what they really wanted to do in exchange for a “secure” job. Have you SEEN the job market today? Companies are downsizing employees left and right – you’d have a better shot at so-called “security” by taking your talent and marketing it the right way than to sit at your job praying you don’t get fired!
But hey, if you don’t believe you can do it, just look at me. A few months ago I was a guy who wanted to get his music out there. A few years ago, I was running around Philly and Richmond, taking my demo to radio stations and asking them to play just ONE of my songs on the air, even if only for a quick second or during one of their 2 AM “nobody’s up listening to us” shows.
Now, I’ve got an international hit playing on radio. INTERNATIONAL. I have a song that’s playing on BBC radio in the U.K., and nightclubs in Germany. My classmates back at Hampton University would have never thought that was even possible. I never knew if it would happen either, but I always had the dream of getting at least ONE of my songs on at least ONE radio station – which goes to prove my other point: if you follow your dream, you never know how big that dream will get realized.
But you’ll never even get a small taste of success if you listen to everybody who says you can’t do it, or decide to doubt yourself and follow what everyone else is doing simply because it seems “normal.” Normal isn’t always a good thing; in fact, oftentimes it’s BORING, non-challenging, and will keep you in a rut. So, if you have a talent, and you think you could make a living doing that talent, STOP WASTING TIME NOT BELIEVING IN YOURSELF AND GO DO IT.
This message has been brought to you, in part, by “The A.P.T. LP” – Coming Sunday, August 24. Yes, I’m advertising here, because I have an ALBUM coming out that people want to actually BUY. See what dreaming big can do for you?
Ladies and gentleman… “The O-bama Mixtape” is here!
Yes, after being asked over and over again, “Hey, are you going to release a mixtape??” for the past couple of weeks, the mixtape songs have been completed!
Putting together a mixtape was HARD. Not because I didn’t have enough songs, but for the opposite reason: I had so many songs, and wanted to put all of them on this mixtape! I was going to put dang near close to 20 songs on there, but then I remembered that mixtapes are really meant to be teasers, an appetizer, if you will, for the actual album. Plus, I figured it would be nice to have more material to put out another mixtape should I decide to do so!
With that said, the mixtape will probably be 12 to 13 songs, most of which are songs I made using beats from popular songs. Most of these are NOT parodies – they are real songs I just happen to make off other people’s beats using my own flow (i.e. not purposefully copying anyone). With that said, there are 3 songs on there that are parodies: “Erectile Dysfunction” (a parody of Snoop Dogg’s “Sexual Seduction”); “I Get Honeys” (a parody of 50 Cent’s “I Get Honeys”), and – of course – “Obama, Obama” (a parody of Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli,” just in case you haven’t heard it by now!).
I also have a couple of songs on there that were produced by me that I was going to save for the album, but they use vocal samples from other recorded songs. Since I don’t own the copyrights to those songs I can’t legally sell them – but I CAN release those songs for FREE and still get people rockin’ to them! I will also probably record a few other songs this week – they may not make this mixtape, but they could always be used at a later date…
I still have some small parts to record, like the intro, the small interludes between songs, and the parts near the beginning and end of songs where I mention my upcoming album. If you think the mixtape is hot, just wait until you hear the album! (Coming out in late August – to find out the name of the album and its release date, DOWNLOAD THE MIXTAPE!! HA! Now you HAVE to get the mixtape!! But it’s free, so you might as well get it anyway!)
So, mark the date people: Sunday, July 27, 2008 – “The O-Bama Mixtape,” the hottest mixtape to be released this year!!!
As of right now, I’ve done 10 videos – 8 really, if you don’t include “Erectile Dysfunction” (which was really just a bunch of pictures) and “Hey Jesse Jackson” (which just had a picture of Jesse Jackson showing while the song played). Making videos is hard work, but it does have the GREAT bonus of getting exposure for both my music and my face – people, for better or worse, at least know what the person making all these songs looks like, and they can get a taste of my personality.
There’s another advantage as well: people are starting to request for me to come to their towns and perform. I already got an offer from some guy that wants me to possibly tour around on a college tour this fall (offer still pending), but now I’m also getting requests from cities outside of Atlanta to perform (D.C. and South Carolina come to mind right now).
One small problem: I have NO idea how to set up a tour!!!
But to be honest, I had NO idea I’d actually become popular off this whole “One-Song-a-Week” thing. After passing around my music, performing, making songs and trying to send my stuff off to record companies for almost 4 years without any forward movement, it’s kinda hard to plan for what happens once you actually HAVE an audience of people! I have fans, I have people that want more of my music (both free AND with a price tag – woo-hoo for that!), and – now it seems - I have people that want to see me perform live.
So far, I’ve only performed once since I started this site. My brother’s 25th birthday party was this past weekend in D.C., and he asked if I’d perform “Obama Obama” at it with him as my DJ/hypeman. So I did – there we were, me and my brother, performing in front of an audience of people, most of whom weren’t all that familiar with the song… and we ROCKED it! I meant to film it but I couldn’t find my camera – a darn shame, because we had so much energy, we played off each other well, and the audience went CRAZY, both for the song and the performance!
So, I definitely want to start doing more shows. Only one problem: I don’t have a car. I don’t have a car!
Of course, there is something to be said for catching a bus to some of these places. All I really, REALLY need to perform is an instrumental of my songs and a microphone. Of course, bus tickets cost money, so if I were going to perform someplace, the venue would either have to pay me enough to cover my bus fare and possibly an overnight hotel stay. But I certainly wouldn’t mind doing it.
But again – how does one set up something like that?? How would I know which places would have a large enough A.P.T. fanbase for me to spend my time going there to perform? How would I negotiate costs and payments? How could I get into contact with bigger acts looking for openers? There is still so much I have to learn about the industry…
…but at least it’s nice to know that I have people wanting to see me perform, as well as other things. I have to figure out how to make all this stuff possible – I would LOVE to be a paid touring musician, making money off performing songs I created that people have grown to love… man, that’s the life.
For now though – I’m getting some dinner, ’cause I ain’t eatin’ in 8 hours. Peace!
Help A.P.T. get his music career started – SEND A DONATION! Click HERE for more info!
This week’s song/video is “Crank That (Yeah!)” (Produced by Fire Kraka)
This song appears on the following mixtape:
THE NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT (a.k.a. BACK ON MY GRIND) – The BRAND NEW A.P.T. Mixtape!
Featuring the hits: “Go Hard Remix” with DJ Khaled, Kanye West and T-Pain, plus “O-bama O-Bama MegaRemix” with Tyga, “#1” with Jay-Z, “Where My Money At” and more!!
FREE DOWNLOAD! Click HERE for mixtape and download info!!
For a song that’s so simple, the making of it had a whole lot that went into it.
I look for beats online, and when I find a beat I like I’ll usually start freestyling to it to see if it I could use the beat for a song. Some of my best songs so far have resulted from this (see: “Shout Out 2 My Big Girls,” “Back 2 The Future,” and other yet-to-be released songs), and I try to do it at least once a week.
When I heard the beat for this week’s song, it instantly reminded me of last year’s hottest record, “Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy. The words to his song were admittedly simplistic, but as I always tell people, some times simplicity is better than trying to be all deep and complex. I started freestyling off some random stuff into the mic, not thinking I’d actually make it into a song.
Then, I came up with the chorus. It was so good that I just KNEW I had to make it a song.
However, I didn’t necessarily want to make it into a video. Up until now, most of my songs have had some form of plot line, or talked about real-life situations. Even in the case of “Obama, Obama,” as funny as it was it still had a main focal point. This “Crank That” song I made was about nothing more than doing the crank dance to any song that comes on!
I recorded the song prior to 4th of July weekend. During the holiday, my friend Michele came from DC to visit me. On her last day, as we were packing her up to go home, I asked her if she’d like to record a few parts for 2 songs I had made, one of them being this one. The part of the song she recorded for me sounded so good, I just KNEW I had to figure out a way to make the song into a video so that she’d be able to see it!
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
(1) The original title of this song was “Crank That $#!+.” However, I decided to change it for a few reasons. One, I have younger cousins and relatives that are hip to this site now, and, seeing as I grew up in a family that didn’t cuss around each other, I’d like to be able to keep it to a minimum. Plus, I really don’t cuss that much in real life, and even the songs I have up now that do have cussing don’t have a lot in them.
More importantly, though: my song “Obama, Obama” is getting regular radio play, part of that being because I didn’t cuss during the entire song, which made radio DJs feel okay about downloading and playing it. This song’s pretty catchy, and I’d hate to think I’d be blocking myself from even more exposure simply because I wanted to say “shit” every few lines!
(2) People think these types of songs don’t take long to write. And… well, they’d be correct! However, for these types of songs, it’s not really the words themselves that matter as much as the FEEL of the words. How they are enunciated and phrased has to be in line with the beat so that people will be able to dance to it.
(3) Because this is a party song, there has to be parts in their where the club audience is persuaded to sing back certain parts. You’ll hear a few “Yeaaaah”s and “A.P.T.!”, as well as Michele’s line in the song, which ALL girls will have to say! It’s actually a very good psychological trick into making people like your song!
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
As is usually the case, I had NO idea what I was going to shoot. I wanted to just do like Soulja Boy, and tape myself dancing for 4 minutes straight with no edits.
HA! Like THAT was going to happen!
Besides, it would have been too boring. Plus, I didn’t want to look so goofy or bore people to death to the point that they’d click off the video before even getting into it.
At the same time, since the lyrics of this song are extremely simple in comparison to the first 8 videos I put up, I didn’t want there to be a backlash from a letdown of expectations. I know now that I’m early on enough in my career where I can experiment with different styles, but you never want to catch a brick so bad that you can’t recover from it.
And, to top THAT off, I was on vacation this week in DC for my brother’s birthday. However, this ended up being a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to film in a location OUTSIDE of my apartment! Still, I didn’t know what I was going to do…
…until I remembered the online feud Soulja Boy has been having with Ice-T about who’s responsible for “killing hip-hop” vs. “helping hip-hop.” I have another song I wrote called “Retirement Home” where I bash old-school rappers for not giving credit to the newcomers who are helping to continue the genre. I figured out that I could do a two-part video, with “Crank That (Yeah!)” being part one and “Retirement Home” being part 2, thus giving me a legitimate excuse for this song’s/video’s existence!
Because I wanted to show that actual work DOES go into creating a crank-type song, I decided to make the video a 7-step instruction manual on the creation of one, from finding the beat all the way to putting it on YouTube. I was able to run with this idea, and it only took me about 1.5 hours to film. I also had to film half of next week’s video, where I respond to a hater who’ll be hating on this week’s song. Always thinking ahead, people!
All in all, I think it came out pretty great!
Some Interesting Video Tidbits:
(1) The hotel used in the video is the Crowne Royal in Alexandria, VA.
(2) The first shot of this video? Me in the shower. I don’t know why I decided to start filming while showering, but who knows when or where inspiration will pop up?!?
(3) “Theory” is the nickname my friend Michele used in college when she did radio.
(4) To film the editing of the video, I had to take my first set of shots, load them up, and then film myself editing the shots I just loaded.
(5) I have no idea what the estimated loading time is because I was trying to edit this thing all day, while at the same time preparing for my brother’s birthday festivities.
That’s all for now – enjoy the video, and I’ll see ya next week!
I’m in D.C. right now. My brother is turning 25 next week, but he’s having his birthday party this Saturday. He invited me up to come to the party, plus he wants me to help DJ it. AND perform. Geez, can’t a brotha get a lil’ R&R when he goes out of town!
Not that I’d be resting too much anyway. I’m staying at the Crown Royal hotel, and have lots of downtime. Which, of course, means I have time to film my next video… well, actually, TWO videos!
I finally figured out how to do the song I wanted this week, and do a video for it in a way that’s not corny. All I can say is this: it’s a dance song that’s very catchy and has absolutely NO message to it. Just one of those fun songs I came up with during a freestyling session where I wasn’t trying to say anything too serious.
At the same time, though, given how basic the lyrics of the song are, I had a fear that there’d be a backlash if I did the video for it in the wrong way, i.e. something out of my normal character. However, I received a message this week for a video idea that I had already kind of thought about doing, but figured out how to expand the idea so that it’s a two-parter. The video for this week is part one; the part-two “response” video, of sorts, will be next week. This way, I have a legitimate reason for this week’s song to exist while at the same time having an excuse to make a song with simple lyrics. Genius!!
But back to the vaca… so, my bro wants me to perform my “Obama Obama” song at the party. Me, being the planning ahead person I usually am, figured it would be a great idea because I could film the performance and add it to my ever-growing press package. Between the 9 videos (and counting) I currently have up, along with the two interviews (and counting) I’ve done, as well as the large amount of radio play I’ve been getting, I should be able to shop myself around to various record labels.
Then again, there is something to be said about letting them come to me. I haven’t been sending out anything to anybody since I started this site, but now everyone – from interviewers to radio stations to fans, fan letters, etc. – has been coming to me. I guess the old adage is true: “if you build it, they will come.” Actually, I think I stole that from an old Kevin Cosner movie. Still holds true, though!
Lastly, my cousin Katia posted a note on my Facebook wall yesterday saying she heard my song at radio station 92.1 in Richmond, VA – my home of 18 years before I moved to Atlanta. It feels good to hear your stuff on the radio, but it feels even BETTER knowing it’s being played in the place you grew up.
On Monday, July 14th, 2008, I had my first ever radio interview for my song, “Obama, Obama,” with radio station KJMM 105.3 in Tulsa, OK. And I filmed it! (Though, really, none of you should be surprised that I did – I film dang near everything these days for documentation.)
Aside from doing music, I am also a big studier of human relationships. Specifically, why and how people meet and fall in and/or out of love.
This studying stems from my own attempts at relationships throughout my high school and college years, where I was constantly trying to figure out how seemingly every guy out there BUT me was able to get girls to like them. I’d have a few girls here and there show interest in me, but then, unbeknown to me, they’d no longer be interested in pursuing a relationship.
Of course, they wouldn’t come out and SAY they weren’t interested. Instead, they would not show up for dates, not return my phone calls, or pass by me without saying a word. I didn’t understand why this was happening, so I decided to find out. I looked up men’s dating advice tips in books and online, and eventually discovered what I was doing wrong: I was being needy, pestering, and trying to give too much of myself too soon.
One of the advantages of knowing all this stuff is that I can now tell when a relationship is either going great, is starting to end, or never was there to begin with. Personally, I’d rather cut my losses early instead of having false hope about it working out with a girl and still trying to pursue it when her interest is no longer there.
It is in this spirit that I wrote this week’s song, “It’s Over.” The song actually stemmed from a conversation I had with a friend of mine a few months back. We were talking about some of the people we went to college with, and… well, I don’t want to give too much of the conversation away, but I will say this: some of the girls we went to school with made TERRIBLE decisions about the guys they decided to pursue. Amazingly, despite the emotional crap these girls allowed these guys put them through, many of them are STILL chasing after them!
The reason? They’re stupid. Oh, and they also aren’t able to tell themselves that the relationship they want just isn’t happening. But mostly, they’re stupid.
After the conversation, though, I realized that I, too, use to be one of those “stupid” people who wouldn’t face the reality that a girl just wasn’t interested in me. So, for the benefit of others who are as stupid as I used to be, I made this song!
The song is divided into two parts. The first verse is a shout-out to all the guys who can’t realize when the girl they’re dating no longer wants to see them. I give the guys examples of the girl’s disinterest, such as cancelling dates, not calling them, hanging out more with her friends, and so on. The second verse is a shout-out to all the girls who also can’t realize when a guy no longer wants them. Examples include: him hitting on other girls; only calling her for sex; and other surprises that you’ll have to hear.
As with many of my songs, the examples are based on real life; The “guy” I’m talking to in the first verse is the stupid version of myself, while the second verse is based on info I heard about a former schoolmate of mine that I wish I could talk to about her situation. All in all, both these experiences made for good song material!
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
(1) Um… I think I gave most of them away in the previous paragraph! Oh wait, here’s one: I’ve gone through most of the situations talked about in the “guy” verse. Minus the crying on the bathroom floor – I’d cry in a much better place than THAT!
(2) I made the beat to this song! In the chorus, you’ll notice the high-rising notes that sound similar to the one used in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The sound is supposed to be the “awakening of knowledge” sound, as in, the person hearing this song is, hopefully, having their eyes opened to the fact that the person they’re after does NOT want them!
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO:
You’d be amazed at how many different video ideas I have for just ONE song.
My original idea for the video was to be walking down the street singing the song as though I’m talking to someone. I even filmed that version while walking to the barber one day. But, I decided to use that idea for another song instead.
My second idea was to film both scenarios being played out by different people. In other words, I’d film the first part using myself, and play out the different things I talk about in the song’s first vers;, I’d film the second part using a girl acting out the scenarios in the second verse. Unfortunately, I have often found it difficult to schedule other people for film times, especially since I think of most video ideas at the spur of the moment. I’m getting better at planning ahead, so hopefully I’ll have other people starring in my videos soon!
But, this past week, I was inspired to do a third video idea. This time, I’m a pod caster who gives out relationship advice on his own station, WAPT (catchy name, ain’t it?)
Then, I was going to shoot the video in the empty apartment above mine, to give viewers a different atmosphere than just my apartment, which I use quite often.
However, I woke up at 3 in the morning a few days ago, and thought: “Wouldn’t it be funny if I just filmed the whole thing in my bathroom, with the excuse being that I get better sound pod casting in there than I do in my regular apartment space??” So, that’s what I did - I rolled out of bed a few minutes later and filmed the whole thing in 2 hours, then went back to sleep for 4 more hours!
Some Interesting Video Tidbits:
(1) Since I’m a relationship advice radio guy in the video, I thought it would be cool to have people call me up asking for advice. This turned out to be the most nerve-racking part of the shoot, as it forces me to rely on outside help for the video.
You’d be surprised at how many people I have to ask to do something as simple as an online video. Some of them are camera-shy, and don’t want their image to be broadcast to the world. Still, others are worried about how their voice might sound, and won’t do something as simple as call my phone to leave a message!! Like, who’s going to see my video and say, “Gee, that sounds like Becky – man, does she sound stupid!!”
With that said, I was able to get my oh-so-helpful brother to be the guy caller. Even then, I like to do things on my time, and I actually shot the video before he called me; I had to cut-and-paste his voice in during post-production. Meanwhile, I couldn’t find a girl to call my phone, so I just used my own voice. In retrospect, I could have asked one of my friends in DC to help, but I want to spread out how much I use them, especially since one of them did vocals for two of my upcoming songs…
(2) My bathroom is SMALL. I live in a studio, and as such I had to record the scenes with me in a “closed” bathroom with my door open. Luckily, I was able to angle it so it looks like I’m still in an enclosed space!
(3) In the video, there are various cuts and splices, as there are with most videos. However, the parts in the video where there are long stretches of the same shot are what I call the “emphasis” points. For most of the chorus I don’t cut to other shots because I’m trying to emphasize to the person being focused on in the verse before that their relationship is OVER.
(4) Estimated edit time: I have no idea. I started yesterday afternoon and worked on it for about 2 hours before I went out to eat, then came back home and edited while watching TV, then edited this morning while watching church on TV. I’d say somewhere around 7 or 8 hours sounds right, but I have no idea!!
(5) Lastly, this whole scenario in the video – me being a radio guy – is partially a shout-out to the radio stations that have been playing my “Obama, Obama” song. In the last week I’ve gotten messages from a LOT of people in different states saying they either heard the song, or – in the case of the radio DJs themselves – had played the song. So, THANK YOU RADIO DJS, YOUR SUPPORT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
That’s all for now – enjoy the video, and I’ll see you next week!
