Sarah Tracey

Monday, August 22^nd:  I sit with teased hair, sore muscles, multiple cups of coffee in my system, ‘Kill Bill’ on the tele, and reflect in exhausted wonderment on the events of the past 2 weeks!  It’s hard to believe that in that time I launched my new website, prepped for and shot 2 videos (!), finalized the CD packaging for my label’s distributor, and did several bangin’ gigs with my Girl-Group side project, The Chiclettes.  Needless to say these have not been ‘Dog Days’ for me--- very little sleep has been had but it feels great!

We all know that VIDEO has become the music-listening tool of choice in this digital age; and if you want to compete you gotta have the video goods… I’m pleased to announce I will be bringing it to you HARD in the next couple months!  I wanted to let you all in on a little of the behind-the-scenes action. 

The first video we shot is a very cool little promo teaser for my forthcoming album, ‘Tell No One’.  Directed, conceived, and produced by Natalie Berning; styled by Jennifer King, with wardrobe by Kristin Lindbeck and production design by Travis Brownell... a chance to collaborate with great friends is so much fun it never feels like work!

We shot at sunrise, in several mysterious locations, telling the story of some dangerous spy adventures in an experimental and artful way--- yes, this was our ‘avante-garde’ outing for this album cycle!  We began on a rooftop surrounded by the urban jungle of Manhattan, and thought it would look amazing to film me climbing up the fire escape on the side of the building onto the roof.

The first sign of danger was when my slingback heel fell off and dropped 7 stories to the ground.  Travis was a valiant and brave soul, scaled down to retrieve it- and the decaying metal of the fire escape gave way!  He was able to grasp the railing just in time and pull himself to safety--- he could have honestly been seriously injured or worse!  But, being professionals, we continued our work in several other locations and had a lot of fun with a fog machine, a mailbox, a chandelier and and some black face-paint along the way.  This art piece is currently in the editing stages and I can’t wait to share it!

Here’s me and the crew--- ‘avante-garde’ style haha:

The danger of the fire escape scene came back to haunt me again 5 days later.  Having warmed up with the promo teaser, I was all set to KILL in my full-length Official Music Video for my song ‘CAMERA’ the following weekend: helmed by director Jim Glaub, producer Ian Weiss, art director Robyn Roberts, wardrobe designer Kimberly Cauti, stylist Jennifer King, choreographer Ryan Greer, and shot by Eric Billman.  This was a much bigger production, with dozens of people involved, an actual budget (shocking!), and months and months of planning- of course I knew I needed to absolutely ROCK IT on every level. I had spent weeks slaving at the gym, pilates sessions, countless wardrobe fittings, dance rehearsals, hair highlights, facial, pedicure, custom spray-tan- you NAME it, I was prepared to outshine Beyonce and J Lo in the ‘video vixen’ category (or at least try!).  Two days before the big shoot- I was feeling great and ready to roll. 

Then, my legs started itching. At first I thought I had been attacked by a mosquito.  I found a couple tiny red bumps and I feared bedbugs.  And then, my entire left leg was covered with a swollen, red, scaly, itchy, burning rash.  Soon my right leg was covered.  As it turns out, the mysterious vines on that fire escape that looked so gorgeous on film ended up being…. POISON IVY. 

Dum dum dummmmm…..!!!!  Was the fire escape sabotaged by the evil super-villains determined to de-rail my quest for musical glory???

It needs to be stated at this point that the subject matter for the song ‘CAMERA’ involves me taking off my clothes.  Part commentary on the digital age, part cautionary tale, part winkingly naughty memoir- the key episode of the story concerns some risqué photos that ended up being taken, and what ended up happening to the ‘CAMERA’ of the song’s title.  MANY TIMES during the conceiving of the video I wished that I had written an album about sitting on the sofa eating pizza!  Sadly, it was never option to shoot the video in a snuggie.  And now, I was covered with hideous swollen red scales!  Horrors!

Sorry to tell the Evil Supervillians--- but thanks to the ace styling team, the video footage that I have seen so far looks truly incredible!  What most people will never know is that I was wearing several pairs of hose to conceal the horrific lesions all over my legs in our lingerie scenes, and suffering through shots with burning, swelling, and hellish itching underneath vinyl leggings and leather boots!  Loading up on Benadryl to relieve the symptoms wasn’t really an option (I didn’t want to be a zombie-eyed groggy mess for the 20-hour shoot).  But, what’s another challenge at this point, considering all we have been through making this album happen?  Robyn, heading up the art department and just all-around troubleshooting, got struck with the flu, and my makeup and hair maven Jenn was also ill for most of the shoot- our fog machine was temperamental to say the least- our main location wasn’t air-conditioned on this hot August NYC weekend leaving us needing a full-time powder blotter… but all things considered it’s going to look amazing!

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the risqué photos captured on the famed ‘CAMERA’:

BIG HUGS and kisses to the crew for bringing it home… I’m so proud to be working with such an awesome team.

We still have our dance sequence to shoot Wednesday--- as long as neither I nor my dancers Eva and Tabitha sprain our ankles before then, we’re good to go!

Evil Supervillians…. don’t even think about it…

-ST