First the song, now Sam Cullen's music video release
“Once the song was finished, I knew pretty quickly what I wanted the music video to look like."
Sam Cullen’s new single ‘Forever’ has another element attached to it with today’s release of the official music video.
The Auckland-based musician - who started his music journey in Invercargill - released the catchy single this month which has drawn plenty of praise.
Cullen was pleased with the reaction to date.
“It’s been really good; I’ve had lots of good comments with people getting in touch right through the country and there’s been some good radio air play which has been nice.”
The official music video for the single has also now been made public.
“Once the song was finished, I knew pretty quickly what I wanted the music video to look like. This is the first time I’ve ever played with a backing band.
“This song sounds like a band, there’s heaps of energy in the song, so I just wanted the band to be in it and for it to be pretty straight forward,” Cullen said.
Shooting the video was enjoyable, Cullen said, adding that they managed to wrap it up relatively quickly.
“We hired out a film studio and basically did a band performance of the song and then put the final cuts edited up with old school video cameras. So, it looks really cool and vintage.
“We basically had 15 or 20 mates come in and made a music video, it was really relaxed and it’s great that I’ve got creative friends that I can lean on for that sort of stuff.”
“It literally took us about five hours to cut out. I’ve spent 48 hours on music videos in the past and I’ve also spent even shorter on music videos, it’s kind of the in between.
“But I guess being a pretty straightforward brief that gives you the time constraint as well.”
The music video was shot by Eden Catterall and Yssy Smith, and edited by Catterall.
The song ‘Forever’ came to life during the first session Cullen had ever done with songwriter/producer Ben Malone (Blake, Luca George, BEXY, MACEY, Rory Noble) and songwriter Harry Parsons (MACEY).
The process of writing the song was impressively quick.
“Basically, we wrote the song in an hour. It was pretty quick,” Cullen said.
“So, we wrote the song in an hour and then probably over the course of the next three months me and Ben we were in and out of the studio finishing it off and Ben was producing it.”
The release of the single, and the corresponding music video, is another step forward in a promising music career that started with plenty of hard work in Invercargill.
Cullen was a regular performer in Invercargill establishments during his days as a high school student at Verdon College.
He’d often be spotted playing at the Tuatara Cafe & Bar or the Speight’s Alehouse and seemed to very rarely turned down a gig.
Cullen believes that hard work and grounding in Invercargill has set him up well.
“I learned heaps from doing that throughout high school doing that. Aside from just playing, how to deal with him, how to get gigs, how to keep gigs, showing up on time, being reliable and all that sort of stuff.”
He moved to Wellington to study after he left high school and now lives in Auckland where he is making his way as a musician.
While the end result is rewarding Cullen acknowledges there’s a fair bit that goes into progressing your music career.
“You’ve kind of got to be your accountant, your own manager, your booking agent, you're sometimes taking your own photos, there is a lot to it.
“But when you’ve got the song there is no point half-arsing around.”
Despite just releasing his single Forever Cullen is already in the process of finishing off another one.
“I’ve got about six or seven songs that are pretty much finished as well. This will definitely lead into a larger project, just pretty keen to get a couple of singles out from it.
“That will probably take us into the next year anyway.”
In the meantime, Cullen is eyeing a homecoming of some sorts. He will preform at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards in July.