A Music Video!

We've done it! After a 12 hour day of pain, suffering, joy,heat, hunger and then cold we managed to shoot what will be my first music video. We set the video to my song "Hambyur/Kiss". I will not give away the entire storyline but have put some stills up as a sneak preview to what some of the story will entail. Very sweet, very romantic - and shot in some of the natural beauty in Armenia which seems to be in almost every corner.
Ardag Avdalyan agreed to make the video and after a day of picking actors to play the parts, I arrived at the set only to find that none of them could make it. Who was supposed to be my "love" turned out to be a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair, a huge gut and an abundance of hair all over his body. Absolutely stunned and appalled at my situation, we pulled Ardag's son off the camera and had him play the part. My fear being that perhaps he was not as mature as one should have looked but he was 100 times better than what would have appeared to be a run in with someone's dad. Hoping all will come together believably and beautifully but it was some experience. We were up in the mountains near Kurdish settlers who keep animals and live in tents for 3 months, we passed through Oshagan where the inventor of the Armenian alphabet is buried and there is also an old beautiful bridge, we went up to the ruins of Amberd Castle which date back to the 7th century!
We shot the swing scene first and I had to get intimate with my boy before we had even said 10 words to each other! The lady who played the grandmother killed everyone that day. She found a need to talk incessantly about everything and anything (mainly herself) and also proceeded to pick every herb in every field and mountainside that we visited which resulted in allergy attacks of some of the crew members. Apparently she cures all sorts of ailments with her potions. (A bit like the old goat in Cold Mountain who saves Jude Law). We decided she was a hazard to the countryside and we should get her home as soon as possible but she was picking herbs from 10am until 10pm with an uncontrollable fervour. Hmmmm.... She was eating all fruits and berries and food off the set of the video with the same uncontrollable fervour.
In the morning we suffered scorching heat and by the time we were shooting the final shots in the field I had to stop from shaking so that I could play guitar I was so incredibly cold. We had a meal of cheese, salami, tomatoes and cucumbers at 5pm when I felt like a truck had rolled over me. All in all it took great endurance but I tried to live every moment of the video and think about the love I have for music that inspired such a song. It was my love for that real moment in life - that real feeling of fearless powerful love and connection that seems to confirm that so many things are possible in the world.
Friday evening I took my friend Anna to see Arto Tunciboyaciyan for the first time at the Avante Garde Folk Club. It was a treat as always. I pray that my music can grow in that way - to branch out, to dig deeper, to touch people and move and inspire them to feel and to truly live.
On a completely different note I hear about the things in Lebanon and I hope anyone with friends or family there are not affected and that all will resolve in safety. God be with all of you.
Enjoy the pics. I shall be busy in the studio all week but will report back shortly.
Peace and love
S