TORONTO, CANADA (Top40 Charts/ Skylar Entertainment) - In Toronto, Ontario to embark on GRADY's current Canadian tour, Gordie Johnson stopped by The
Trews music video set. While showing photos of his kids on his camera the guys noticed a Grady shot and asked what it was. 'I said 'oh that's our If I Was King video,'' explains Johnson, 'they started looking at it and asking - 'how can you have your video footage on your camera?' I shot and directed it on my Sony Cyber-Shot digital camera.'
If I Was King is the current GRADY single just released to radio. When there were ongoing logistical delays that were making a video shoot impossible Johnson noticed his digital camera shot HD, took control and made it happen. 'It occurred to me that video is not much different than audio and I work in the audio realm in the studio all the time,' he says. 'So to make something come to life visually I just had to apply the same creative process that I would in producing a record. I plotted it all out shot for shot and the end result of the video looks strikingly like the storyboard I did with a pencil and a sketch book.'
Shot entirely outdoors, video pre-production involved a walk around Johnson's property outside of Austin, Texas with his kids as stand-ins, making notes on when the natural light looked best. Johnson states, 'We had an hour of good light, I shot 2 days in a row, followed my script and we were done.' For the nighttime shots, he got creative by circling cars around to use headlights.
The Trews Tim Martin video director was impressed enough to offer up his editing suite. Johnson changed his flight to Ottawa where the GRADY tour was starting, stayed up all night, catalogued his shots, and spent the day at Frameblender with Martin and his assistant. 'They did the heavy lifting, worked on it another day, refined it for me some and came up with a great result.'
'If I Was King' is dedicated to Gordie Johnson's life long friend Eric Tunney. R.I.P. Eric Tunney 1964 - 2010
Watch 'If I Was King' on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/gradymusicaustin
Official Website: https://shadygrady.net/
Industry Quotes on 'If I Was King'
''If I Was King,' the thunderous rhythm of Big Ben Richardson on bass and Nina Singh on drums and powerful vocals by all three create a huge wall of sound overall. Grady really tears it up!!! From the new album Good As Dead , 'If I Was King' is backed up with a great video that tells us they have come up with the track that radio will embrace and surely take this great band through the roof.' -Bill Ham, Manager/Record Producer (ZZ Top)
'If it's Grady, you know it will be heavy and badass. Add Michael Ramos' accordion (yes, accordion!) and castanets into the mix on 'If I Was King,' and it works, adding a "From Dusk Till Dawn" feel to the mystery and an irresistible flavor to a song that sounds utterly kickass on the radio!' - Loris Lowe, KLBJ-FM / Austin, TX 'Local Licks Live'
