The cameras rolled on Jack Van Somer and now the musician's first music video is rolling on the airwaves.
Van Somer is now being seen on screens large and small for his single Come Out To Play. The Prince George singer-songwriter has been playing on some increasingly larger stages these days and the video is the next step.
It was shot by director Parth Suden and involved showing the song for how it was created: Van Somer playing all the instruments. The camera pops around to the tambourine man, the drummer, the bassist, the keyboard player, the guitar strumming frontman, and they are all Van Somer. That's how the song was originally written and recorded, before Van Somer had his band put together. With a little bit of simple movie magic, he became his own full band on-screen.
"The look and feel of the video is all Parth," said the rising star. He and Suden met because Suden noticed the unique tattoo Van Somer has on his arm - the function bar of a stereo - they got talking, and it was a fast friendship.
"He is such an interesting guy, quite soft spoken and very agreeable, but so confident in his own abilities," Van Somer said. "I've never done a video before in my life so he said 'let's just get a couple of lights, let's do a bit of this over here and that over there, and it'll be fun.' I had some input in the conversation, but the atmosphere and the production quality is all Parth. I was lucky to have him involved. It came out looking really good."
It is far from a homemade hand-held do-it-yourself video. Van Somer has shot one or two of those before. This one had sharp images, crisp colour saturation, creative use of blur and sharp contrasts, artsy angles, and a faux monochromatic look that emphasized the colours of the instruments.
Music videos are made to do a job: promote the songs they represent. This one, by way of using Van Somer on all the instruments, draws subliminal attention to the craftsmanship in the tune. It breaks it down into its parts in an entertaining way.
Van Somer recalls how the song went from something semi-dressed in the privacy of his home to a well-coifed song worthy of being a single. When the College Heights Pub existed, a deejay there, Steve Smoch, twisted his musical friend's arm to come out for an open mic night. Van Somer was that friend, he relented to his shyness and the tune he chose was the light and lilting Come Out To Play.
From there, Van Somer got up the nerve to try out the open mic night at Cafe Voltaire, then at Nancy O's. Each time, Come Out To Play found its way into his set list. Audiences and other supporters started to assemble.
One of them was Prince George music manager Earl Krushelnicki, the city's premier talent booker. He was impressed by Van Somer's work and got him solo gigs at various local venues that eventually resulted in opening acts for country star George Canyon and folk phenom Stephen Fearing.
But it's not as though Van Somer isn't accustomed to that level of spotlight. He's been on stages like that before, just not as the headliner himself. He has been a bandmember of many successful music ensembles over the years before he ventured out under his own banner.
"My life is work... family... music... and repeat. I don't ski, I don't have any hobbies, I play music," he said. "I was trained on piano - Royal Conservatory - for 10 years. Chopin and Debussy are my go-to favourites. It's what got me hooked on love songs, because I was already unknowingly wrapped up in the romantic era. But when I was 13, I had a crush on a girl who loved The Beatles so I figured she and I should have something in common."
To score cool points with the girl, he learned the drum part for the Sgt. Pepper reprise on the B-side of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Based on playing that one fill, he got asked to be in an otherwise all-female band.
"I think that's where I learned 'feel' in music - how to interpret a song," he said. "The girls weren't in the band to look cool or 'impress chicks' like a lot of guys do. They worked on songs differently and I learned from that."
He worked on being a bass player next, since it was part of the rhythm section he had been conscripted into. Then he evolved to the guitar. Always, pianos and keyboards were part of his skill-set.
He moved on to other bands as he grew up. He was a member of country singer Heidi Ray's backup unit that opened for Randy Travis in her hometown of Dawson Creek before she moved to Nashville.
He was also in the band Rocking Chair from Quesnel.
He also had a family connection in music that brought him a lot of stage hours. He is related to recording artist Rick Stavely and Van Somer was involved in many concerts with this popular northern B.C. country-rock musician.
"Being in Rick's band was a big learning experience and just a real pleasure," Van Somer said.
Stavely was a songwriter, and that rubbed off on Van Somer. He was already doing it, but mentorship led to inspiration and experience.
"I'm really curious about the craftsmanship of the song. What is the melody doing? What are the lyrics trying to say?," he said. "You get to play with fact and fiction. There are elements of autobiography and your own personal views, but you mix in made-up stories and things you imagined. It's fun."
He said a song, in his view, is like a child in that when it's finally out in the world it has your creative DNA in it, but somehow it is its own being, it came from more than you. It came from your mentors and teachers and Chopin and Debussy and the sum total of your life.
He said his songwriting influences came most from masters like James Taylor and Paul Simon "but for some reason it came out more country than that, without me being intentional about that." Then you add his voice, which rings with similarity to Hemingway Corner or Jackson Browne.
He considers it a major achievement that he also earned the musical accompaniment of Bradley Brekkaas and Curtis Abriel, his established bandmates. Each has his own stellar reputation in the Prince George region and as a trio they are causing some big stirrings in their region. All are multi-instrumentalists, all are strong vocalists, all have songwriting mentalities, all are family men but are also focused on doing Jack Van Somer outreach.
To check some of that out, they are set to play Shiraz Cafe on June 25 but you don't have to wait any time at all to watch Jack Van Somer's new video available now on YouTube or by link on his Facebook page.
