In January 2010, Peter Brodin and Nikon Nordic invited Bill and I to come to Scandinavia for a shooting and speaking tour. We were set to visit Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki.
During our first stop in Stockholm we were introduced to a Swedish rock band, the Backyard Babies. They had a new song and a new album coming out in a few days and were looking to make a music video. Perfect, we were in Scandinavia with a camera company as our host, a massive locker of Manfrotto tripods supplied by our friends in Italy and a bunch of Cinevate movie making equipment. The timing worked out, and we made a music video.
The idea of making music videos was always something that intrigued me. It's the merging of my favorite art forms - poetry, music, visuals and storytelling. I grew up watching MTV and VH1 - back when they actually played music on those channels. As a kid and young teen I watched countless Making of the Video episodes. I saw the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers bring their music to life; I witnessed the incredible production and makeup that went into videos for Britney Spears and NSYNC.
In 2010 the Backyard Babies had been playing together for 20 years. The band was comprised of singer Nicke Borg, guitarist Dregen, bassist Johan Blomqvist and drummer Peder Carlson. We first met them at their studio in Stockholm to get to know each other and hear their new song, “Abandon.”
We all immediately got along. They were down to Earth and open. Funny in a way that people who live their passion always are. Dregen was the personality of the group, outspoken and charming. Nicke was the intellect, quiet and thoughtful. Peder was energetic, always bouncing around with his hair in braided pigtails. Johan was more of a mystery. He didn't say much but greeted us with a friendly smile.
They were laid back and confident. They knew what they wanted, and we knew we could deliver.
They wanted a hard-charging video that would show what it felt like to be at one of their live shows; to show the work they put in and the product they created for their fans.
We quickly set up a couple lights and cameras in their studio and got to work. We recorded a couple run throughs of the song in their Stockholm studio that day, then we all took off for Turku, Finland. They had a show at a venue called Klubi the next night and we were set to record their setup and the show for the rest of the video.
When we got to Turku - which is 2 hours north and west of Helsinki - it was negative 17 degrees Fahrenheit. For this Florida girl, that is a temperature that shouldn't exist. We walked around town very briefly - because I was frozen - to try and find a place to shoot a nice opener for the video; something to introduce the audience to the guys in the band.
It didn't take long. Turku is surrounded by water, the Baltic Sea, which was frozen solid. That January afternoon was a rare sunny day. The only thing in our sight was blue sky and flat, white ice. We called Nicke and Dregen and told them to meet us at the beach. We quickly set up a small Cinevate jib and shoulder rig.
The band pulled up in their tour bus - which had a broken heater - and met us out on the ice. The shoot only took a couple minutes - we were all freezing - but we got what we needed. Their long shadows moving across the endless ice made for a perfect introduction - a Swedish rock band walking across the frozen Baltic.
From there we went back to Klubi to prepare for the show. The band setup their stage, we setup our cameras. We had remote cameras on a pole in the back of the club, a camera on stage left, another on stage right, a long lens in the back focused on Nicke, a shoulder rig, a jib. We had it covered.
The guys played the song a few times in rehearsal that afternoon so we could record it. We followed them through their pre-show routines. Nicke getting his mic ready. Dregen doing his hair. Johan setting his volume. Peder playing air drums.
Then the show started. All of our preparation came down to one play through of the song live. We shot other pieces throughout the show - photos of the band and fans, a stop motion of Peder playing the drums - but the the video needed to be them playing “Abandon” on stage.
It all happened quickly. Ten songs in, Nicke looked at me and nodded. That was our cue. I hit the test button on the Pocket Wizard in my jacket, triggering the remote camera at the back of the club. I started the camera on stage right, Bill started the camera on stage left. Our friend Curt Bianchi started the camera in the back. Our friends from Nikon helped protect all the cameras from the raucous crowd. Bill ran a slider in front of the stage. I had a D3s on a shoulder rig.
Part of the fun of the shoot was how unplanned it was. We went with feeling, just like they were doing on the stage. The end result, I think, shows that.
We quickly broke down all of our equipment after the show and got on a tour bus back to Helsinki. We had a speech the next day at noon where we were set to premiere the video. I opened my Macbook Pro, plugged in a portable hard drive and got to work. I edited the beginning of the video in the back of a tour bus with Mattias, our Swedish friend who introduced us to the Backyard Babies, asleep across from me.
I continued editing through the night and into the next day. I was almost done when our speech was set to begin, so Bill started without me. After an hour alone on stage in front of a Finnish audience (the Fins are notoriously quiet which is unnerving when you're presenting), Bill came backstage.
“Please tell me you're done,” Bill said. “I'm dying out there.”
“You're doing fine,” Peter Brodin told him. “Three people asked questions. For a Finnish crowd that's huge.”
Then he slapped Bill on the back and we all laughed.
Helsinki was our last stop on the tour. In every other city our presentations had been like conversations, with people asking questions and offering comments. Every venue was filled to capacity. It was a full house in Helsinki, too, but unlike the other cities it was very quiet. Not only did the crowd not ask questions, their facial expressions never changed, making it impossible to know if they were enjoying it at all.
I handed Bill a thumb drive with the exported video on it. He showed it to the audience without seeing it himself. When it finished playing, the crowd applauded loudly and a few people even raised their hands with questions. In Finnish terms, that made our presentation a massive success.
Over the years we have done a number of music videos, but this one is my favorite. Maybe it's the song, maybe it's the guys in the band, maybe it was the whole experience of being in Scandinavia in the winter. Whatever the reason, I love this video, the song and the memories it brings back.