Lamb of God - Omens
“And so they wanted every single day, and every single second of every single hour to be documented. They wanted this documentary to show their creative process and the inner workings of the band. So I spent the next two months really getting to know the guys - given I’d never met them before this project.”
“But after the first couple of weeks recording at Henson Recording Studios, it became apparent that we needed to also shoot outside of the studio to give the project another dimension. And so I followed each musician on a fun adventure around town. John Campbell their bass player took me hiking in Runyon Canyon, where he talks about what Los Angeles means to him and the band. Randy Blythe, their lead singer took me to an animal sanctuary, of all places. This was all filmed during Covid so the sanctuary was really suffering and Randy thought it would be a good way to help.”
“Their drummer Art Cruz is a native of LA, where the rest of the guys grew up in Virginia. Art is the drummer for the band and their newest member. He took me to his family home where he used to practice to Lamb of God as a fan. We then went to his high school and then onto the Wiltern where he first saw Lamb of God live and used to work at. Going back to his school followed by a film crew was a great ‘full circle moment’ for him.”
“When music artists go into a recording studio it’s this creative sanctuary that their fans never get to see. These are sacred moments for a band. And so Lamb of God really wanted to share these very personal experiences. This is where I get to be a fly on the wall being able to tell these stories to their fans all over the world.”
“It’s such a privilege to document how their songs are crafted. I get to capture these incredibly rare moments in the band’s life. Moments of musical creation that when I film them, they get to live on forever. It’s almost like revealing the magic in a band.”
“What fascinates me most is getting to understand who the artist is as a person. The individual behind the fame. I mean the lead singer for Lamb of God is just this amazing, charismatic guy who can scream like no one else can! Randy is super funny and quirky. And you’d never get to see that side if they hadn’t invited me into their world.”
“When Randy records his vocals, he’s actually walking around just holding the mic in his hand. The vocal mic in a recording studio is this sacred thing that is usually on a stand that no one ever touches. That is until, everything is organized and perfect, and there’s not even a single fly in the room! Not so with Randy, he’s just moving around holding the mic and flinging his dreads around while singing …or technically screaming!!! I was just fascinated by how this band does their own thing in their own way.”
“Shooting a band in a recording session is really intense, let alone for an entire two months. With any band there’s always a bit of push and pull between the members. After all, making music is a creative process of ideas and sounds, so there can be a lot going on at any one time. So it’s always interesting to experience these unique moments.”
“The whole project took two months to shoot and another two months to edit. There was 57 hours worth of footage, if not more. When you spend every day being present in a band’s life for such a long time, you get a really good feel for how their story should be told. The whole documentary just came together as it should. The band was very happy with the first cut and we perfected it from there. They thought the documentary would be about the making of the album, and maybe, touch on three or four of its main songs! What they didn’t expect to see is a documentary with ten chapters, digging deep on all ten songs from ‘Omens’! To me, the ten stars of this film were those ten songs, even more so than the band members themselves, so it was important for me to make each of these tunes shine.”
“Being in a prestigious recording studio like Henson where ‘We Are The World’ was recorded for two months can be super expensive. So as a filmmaker, I have to be able to get the footage I need, but not get in the way of their creative process. And yet I still need to capture these really cool cinematic moments. So you have to build rapport with the band, so when one of the band members says he’s going surfing tomorrow, you want to be invited to tag along too! And so that’s the real art to my filmmaking - to be invited into those personal moments in a band’s life.”