Junkies Rush has only been around since 2008 but they already have two music videos making the rounds, and just this year released the EP Sins On Your Sleeves. Guitarist Russ Bridger and bassist Wade Christenson had been working on the project for about a year before drummer Wayne Davies joined in and really helped get things going. The Calgary-based metal trio released their second music video “Broken Pieces” on Jan. 31, 2010. Just a day before our February issue went live and we at Pitch Black were lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the video before the official release.

The audio for “Broken Pieces” was mixed and produced by Brian Joseph Dobbs, who has worked with bands like Death Angel, Voivod, Motley Crüe and Metallica. The video portion was mixed and produced by Michael Olson at Darklight Productions Inc., based out of Edmonton, Alta.

The original storyline for the video was created by Olson and was to be used for another song called “Footsteps,” but it seems the ideas and plans fit better to a different Junkies Rush song.

“After throwing ideas back and forth with our video producer for a while, we realized that the storyline was a perfect fit for “Broken Pieces,” which has always been a favorite for us,” says Christenson.

The video was filmed at the farm Christenson grew up on near Camrose, Alta. The planning took considerably longer than the actual shooting.

“Our video shoot was only for one day. This was after a couple months of planning and shooting ideas back and forth. It takes a lot of time to get everyone set up for one day of shooting.”

Everything was to be shot during the daylight so not much lighting gear was required. For our readers who may be videographers, a “Red Camera” was chosen for this shoot for the HD quality. Other than renting the camera, the band did not have to spend much money to get the final result they wanted. They brought their own gear and P.A. system for the live playing portions of the video, and utilized the farm environment for everything else.

A limited budget may be a hindrance to some, but Junkies Rush made do with what they had saying, “It sucks when a budget holds you back from doing things the way you want to. I’d like to think ‘where there’s a will there’s a way.’ Sometimes it just takes a bit longer to get what you want.”

Before they even had a website of any sort, Junkies Rush put out their first music video for “Relax,” also produced by Darklight Productions. The video combines footage from a live outdoor gig and footage from their jam space. With barely any promotion, the video was getting a lot of hits off the bat.

According to Christenson, “Putting out a video should be at the top of the to-do list for anyone in a band. It’s one of the best ways to get out there and give everyone a chance to see what you’re like. Visual exposure!”

The new video contains a story line, which they will not elaborate on, saying, “We hate to pinpoint the meaning of a song to our audience. If you know the lyrics to our tunes you can definitely relate in your way. If we tell you ‘this’ is what is means then it loses the personal connection. Most of our lyrics are portraying an emotion, more so than telling a story. We want you to find your own meaning!”

A couple months of planning, a day of shooting, three months of editing and one month for the final touch-ups gave the final product that Junkies Rush envisioned.