We once were Kings…
Charlie and the Boys
I dug deep into my vaults to get something from the years before I had to deal with labels and budgets (I use the word “budget” lightly). We’d grab a case of beer and a DV camera and just go wild shooting some crazy video because we could. Well, that’s what this is…Rex Aquariums “King.” The song was off of Rex’s second album “Back of the Room.” I had done a previous video for their tune “Alicia,” which was even more rough than this! I met Charlie Wadhams when he was playing drums for Kennedy, and he soon become one of my favorite people in the world. He went on to sing in Rex with his brother Chris, and then later to his own band. Charlie is one of the coolest people you’ll ever meet. He loves women, music, eating pizza with Tapatio on top. He’ll bring over a brown bag of tall boys and a stack of old movies! And when that’s all done, he’ll play you a song.
The video for “King” came about from a bunch of documentary footage I had been shooting for the band. I went to the old Eagle Rock recording studio The Ship (home of Earlimart) and shot the bulk of it on a Sony one chip camera. Then there was a live radio show they did on Danny Masterson’s “Feel My Heat.” After that radio show, we went to the ‘Ye Rustic, got drunk, and shot some more. The video was really comprised of lots of drinking and random scenes shot along the way. When I started to piece that all together, it wasn’t enough. Charlie had this idea of being dragged through Griffith Park playing his guitar to tie it all together. So again, we just went and did it. Rafael pulled Charlie along as I stood over him with a DVX 100 and walked backwards. After a night of editing, the sun rose and we had a video. Hope you enjoy something that came from the heart, back when I was young and didn’t know better!
