FIDLAR - Cheap Beer Video

This song goes way back almost 3 years ago to November 13, 2009.  I actually have this stuff cataloged.  Technically the first FIDLAR song written, although I do have a few tracks Zac had written from the month before that were heading in the same direction.  At the time, everyone was just friends hanging out, getting drunk and jamming.  Zac and Elvis were working at a studio in Eagle Rock and we all used to get drunk and jam there after hours.

This particular night, we were making our way through a 30-pack of Budweiser.  Zac had come up with the riff and we were trying to come up with lyrics.  I remember him saying, "I dunno, I just want it to say something like I drink cheap beer so what fuck you" and I said, "Well just say that then."  And out came the song.  Our friend Dan had been out the week before from New York.  He got shit faced and threw up all over my back seat.  We cleaned it out with a window squeegee at a Shell station.  He made it into the second verse.  It's crazy to look back on something that was done purely for our own amusement and to see it now being released on a real record.  A record I'm insanely proud to be even the smallest bit a part of.

So anyway, onto the video.  I got an email a few weeks ago about doing a video for this song.  We tried one idea that I just couldn't get to work.  I was super frustrated because this song was important to me.  I didn't want to put this other video out but there was a deadline and I didn't know what else to do.  The night before I was supposed to deliver this thing, Alice and I were at a bar and I was seriously bummed out on the whole situation.  Then out of nowhere, we got this idea for the biker video.  This was on Sunday night.

I called up Brandon and asked him to get me a couple more days and that I was doing a new video.  The next morning, I called up James and Shanon and asked if they were free that night.  I went to work, told Craig the idea... He was down to shoot it.  He and I have worked together for somewhere around 7 or 8 years.  We basically see things identically.  So we made a shot list, Alice got everything prepped and we started shooting at 10:30 that same night.  By 3:30am we were finished.

Take something like the "Oh" video, which I'd consider to be similar in style.  That thing was shot over 3 separate days, months apart.  We usually do this stuff pretty slow and casually.  But in the case of this video, we were all excited and the idea was fresh (and we had no time).  By Tuesday evening, it was cut and roughly colored and by Wednesday it was sent to the label.

I'm super proud of this one.  Maybe I'm just still excited about it.  But I think everyone involved killed it.  It's super fun, rough, and just as ridiculous as the song itself.  I think the time constraint made this thing what it is because we really didn't take any longer than a few seconds to make decisions and that also allowed for a lot of free flowing creativity, which I think is great.

FIDLAR - Cheap Beer from Ryan Baxley on Vimeo.

FIDLAR - No Waves (Crackhead Ted pt. 2)

When FIDLAR was first starting out, we made a video for a song called Crackhead Ted.
I wanted to try this idea of singing to a slowed down track and then speeding the video up in post to have it match.



Zac, Brandon, and Brandon's girlfriend, Cayla were all over at our house one night.  Cayla had her camera with her, and since we weren't doing anything else, we decided to make this video.  It was super loose, very spur of the moment.  That was the first video we ever did together.


So, now 2 years later, we were trying to come up with an idea for the No Waves video and the band suggested we do the same concept.  It seemed very fitting being the first video under the Mom + Pop label.  The video for "Oh" had been a bit of an undertaking and it seemed like a great idea to just do something fun.


We kept Alice as the frontman and Zac in his animal hat and Brandon with his animal mask and american flag in his mouth.  But for this video, I wanted to do real vhs effects, and make it more apparent that it was just 1 take.  So, we start the video off in the day time and ended it after dark.  We didn't really plan much of this thing out at all.  I tried my best to keep the spontaneity of the 1st video, so no one really knew what they were supposed to be doing.  But I think it worked out and we had a super fun time making it.

Brown And Blue - You Only Wanted Strength (Music Video)

Here's another video Craig Rice & I did recently.

I met Brown & Blue through the FIDLAR guys around the same time we were shooting the "Oh" video. They were putting out a new single and asked me to do a video for the song. The original concept was pretty elaborate and based off an episode of the 1964/65 cartoon, Jonny Quest. But, in the end, didn't pan out for budget reasons. So, we tried to come up with a new concept that could keep costs as low as possible. Normally, I'm not a big fan of performance based music videos, but this one really seemed to work for the song. We wanted to capture the fun, pop side of the song, but its melancholy vibe as well.

We built the set, bought the props, and shot it in a day.
Sometimes when you're shooting a video, you know that you're getting something cool. We felt that way when we were shooting, but felt it even more when we got into the edit.

In the warm, over-cranked footage, there's a feeling of perfection. Like, this is the ideal "good time." But in the normal, balanced footage, it just feels a little out of control and frustrating.
I love how the confetti looks beautiful and fun when its slowed down, and then flat out annoying when its at normal speed and getting stuck in Danny's mouth.

This is where I feel the concept really comes across. These guys are singing a pretty bummer song, but trying so hard to have a good time, and these two emotions are really fighting each other in the video.

So anyway, I'm super stoked on this one. Hope you enjoy it.

FIDLAR - Oh (Music Video)

Here's a video I worked on for FIDLAR.

First time we went out to Joshua Tree to film, we got rained out. Second time, my camera man, Craig Rice, wasn't available so I had to film it myself. 3 months later, we tried to film the opening shots, and the car, which my friend Mario owns, wouldn't start so we had to get triple A to come jump it. Long story short, a lot of work went into this thing. I'm super glad, but can't believe it came out. Hope you enjoy it.

FIDLAR - Oh from Ryan Baxley on Vimeo.