WHEN Talon Gillis was planning his music video shoot for the Terrace band King Crow and the Ladies from Hell, he was envisioning rainy conditions and grey skies.
But the weather gods threw a curve ball and the first big snowfall came that day.
Dressed in short sleeves, one even wearing a kilt, the band braved the cold out at Just Cut It Sawmilling lumber mill that served as the set for the edgy tribute to their song “In the Ground” off their coming album.
While it meant more warm up breaks and a little bit of slipping around, Gillis said the falling snow added an unexpected and striking aspect to the lighting.
“The song is about working hard. You’ve been trudging through this long work period and you see light at the end but you don’t get to enjoy it. You just work your whole life away,” he said of the main theme.
“The band chose the song for me. They approached me and said ‘can you make a video.’ I’ve always wanted to work with King Crow,” said Gillis.
The band has built a reputation for their northern mix of working class lyric themes with Celtic, folk and gypsy punk dabbled with notes of the ethereal provided through flute, and Gillis said ideas came immediately to him when he heard the “In the Ground.”
The idea of the oppression from too much work led to Gillis’s artistic vision of zombie-like workers rocking out at a sawmill.
“I wanted to film in a way that kind of showed the style of the band and mostly wanted images that reflected how I first felt when I heard the song,” said Gillis.
“The way the melody went, there was a lot of slow movement and I wanted that eerie, creepy feel. I knew right away to have zombie workers and wanted to make a video around that concept. I wanted a darker feel.”
“I planned something that didn’t have a huge budget. It was idea driven,” Gillis continued.
His previous experience making images in the north includes photography, filming of snowboarding and video shorts.
At the time of this interview, Gillis was planning a trip to Vancouver to edit the video.
Other people participating in the project include King Crow’s band manager Sarah Zimmerman and makeup artist and hair stylist Emily Albright, both from Terrace too.
“The band is really excited about the video and to have an early release to build momentum for their first full length album,” said Zimmerman.
Gillis said the video should be finished sometime around Christmas and the King Crow and the Ladies from Hell will be doing a show for the release, with the album coming some time after that.
Band members include: Bobby Middleton, Leah MacKay, Jeff Chapman, Dylan Gordon, Torence Sandhals, Garrett Kerr, Sam Hogarth, Jamie Norton and Mark Billey.