ROCHESTER – Want to be in a music video but don’t play an instrument? The Root River Jam musicians say that’s not a problem. You don’t know how to dance? Also, not a big deal.
Do you already have plans for June 5? Well, The Root River Jam can’t help you there.
However, if you are free on June 5th and want to be in the very first music video for The Root River Jam, everyone is welcome to show up outside of Riverside Elementary School for a group photo shoot. .
Each of the musicians in the group has completed their solo parts and would like to see group support for the final video shoot.
People will be asked to perform a short and simple group dance routine, or cheer, or clap or whatever they might feel like doing in a group, Wilson said.
Over the past two weeks, band members have performed in and around Lanesboro and Zumbrota. The band’s lead guitarist and songwriter, David Wilson, balanced on a pillar atop a parking ramp in downtown Rochester on Tuesday as Storysage Production’s Colton Simpson filmed close-ups .
John Molseed / Post Bulletin
“It’s perfect here,” Simpson said. “You can’t move on me.”
Wilson used his cell phone to play his guitar solo on the song “Love is Unity.”
Wilson said he wrote the song in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was seeing a lot of divisions between people who really have a lot in common,” Wilson said. “The message is, let’s try to love each other.”
The student-designed mural on the north and west sides of Riverside Central Elementary School is a fitting place to wrap up a video for a song with a message about unity, he added.
When Wilson told Simpson the video would include a group dance number, Simpson said he was a little skeptical at the time but was willing to help make it happen.
“I said, ‘OK Dave, you make this happen,'” Simpson said.
John Molseed / Post Bulletin
Filming atop a parking structure with a city skyline was also part of the message, Simpson said.
“If we shot everything in the country, it wouldn’t be very unifying,” he says.
Wilson was later joined by Blake Bonde, who plays double bass in the band.
Bonde was one of the first members to join the band Southeast Minnesota Americana when Wilson formed it in 2012. Bonde responded to an online ad Wilson posted looking for a drummer and bassist for the help start a new musical project. Wilson said he spent years playing in different cover bands, but kept the songs he wrote at home to himself.
“It’s not very rewarding just playing covers,” Wilson said.
Bonde said he joined the band because he felt he could be part of a collaboration and bring his experience and education of double bass performance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to the band.
“I don’t just want to be here to go, plunk, plunk, plunk,” he said.
For Wilson, this trust and collaboration over the past decade has been as much a learning experience as it was honing his songwriting skills.
“What I’ve learned to do is not only trust the people I play with, but also trust them and their vision,” he said.
He added that’s why he recruited Simpson to shoot, edit and help script the video.
“(Simpson) and I just hit it off,” Wilson said. “He has good vision.”
For Simpson and his company, the project is a bit outside of their usual scope of corporate videos, but it makes for a fun challenge.
Filming is scheduled from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Sunday, June 5, 2022.
What: Shooting the Root River Jam Music video
Where: West of Riverside Central Elementary School,
506 Fifth Avenue SE
When: 1:30 p.m., Sunday June 5, 2022
