Devon Worley Band Hunger for More in New Music Video “Up On The Mountain”
Reviews by: Andy Ellis, Writer @andysmileyjay
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, owner/editor @MelodicNoiseMedia
If you like what we are doing, please consider supporting us on Patreon, PayPal, or Venmo.
Within 15 seconds I had my first internal ‘Whoa.” I was watching the Devon Worley Band’s brand new music video for their anthemic “Up On The Mountain,” directed by Rory O’Neill, and the images I was absorbing gave that feeling you get on Christmas Day when you open up a present that wasn’t on your list, but it ends up being your favorite. This is what indie music videos are capable of? Give me more, please.
I was instantly drawn in by the opening shot of lead singer Devon Worley rushing up the stone and dirt paths of Taylor’s Falls to the sound of lead guitarist Jason Medvec’s guitar intro that sounds like they’re climbing the steps with right along with her.
After a few more shots of Devon running up the path the video transitioned to Medvec and his yellow guitar with a slow zoom out to reveal the rest of the band dressed in black against the backdrop of the cliffs, trees, and rocks of Minnesota’s natural beauty.
The Devon Worley Band has always walked that razor thin line between country and rock and putting them in this setting highlighted just how grounded their music still remains. “Up On The Mountain” is ambitious in the lyrics, instrumentation, and overall concept. The song is about reaching the top of your journey, and that often-not-discussed struggle of ‘What’s next?’ helps keep the concept rooted in the real world. Amongst the shots we see is the band on a cliff and with Medvec wailing his guitar in a total Rock God shot that has him almost uncomfortably close to the edge. I’m not sure if I was more nervous for him or that definitely not-cheap axe.
We also see several clips of the band performing at their concerts. The clips are from different angles and performances adding that perfect touch of the band’s bring-it-on personality their shows are known for.
One of the most striking images is the blink-and-you-miss-it shot of Worley perched on a chair that looks like it was taken straight from Victor Frankenstein’s study. She’s sitting there comfortable and confident in her ball gown with smoke rising up from behind. The purple hue she’s engulfed in gives off a Prince-goes-Gothic vibe. It’s an image of an artist coming into her own, reaching that peak, but still not even close to being satisfied.
I’ve known the group for several years, and one thing they’ve always made clear is that they are a band through and through. It may say Devon Worley in the band’s name, but all their originals are a result of them coming together for the common goal of creating music that will make you feel alive. That in itself is what makes the band tick. They’re always pushing to be the truest version of themselves. They have no desire to write songs that chase social media trends, and it’s a badge of honor they wear proudly. They did that with this video and they continue to do that with their music.
I was also lucky enough to sit down with Devon Worley to chat with her about the concept of the treatment, the filmmaking process, and more.
Andy: So the concept for the video for “Up on The Mountain” was actually yours, right?
Devon: It was. Yeah, to an extent. I mean there was a group effort behind the final product, but the song itself was kind of my brainchild. So a lot of the creative decisions fell to me retrospectively just because I have the stronger opinions on the direction of the song in general.
Andy: Music is one medium and so is video. When you were looking at the concept in your mind, was it a direct translation from music to video, or were you looking at a more abstract version for the music video?
Devon: I was definitely looking at more abstract. The song itself is a lot more metaphorical than a lot of the songs we put videos to or live recordings to. It’s such a personal song for me as well. And really, I mean, the core feeling of the song is a sort of desperation. And I really wanted to invoke that in the video. I just wanted the whole video to feel like you’re rushing towards something, but nothing’s happening. That’s the vibe that I was trying to go for.
Andy: What was it like when you were trying to communicate your idea with your director Rory O’Neill?
Devon: I was lucky because Rory, he’s one of my favorite human beings on the planet. He’s a fantastic person and I’ve known him for so many years now, through (lead guitarist) Jason [Medvec]. But I was lucky enough that Rory creatively understood what I was trying to say. Because I really didn’t have a whole lot of words for what I wanted to execute. I kept sending him inspiration pictures, random words, ideas, and thoughts that I had. And he was the one who took all of the chaos of information that I sent him and narrowed it down into not only what was going to be feasible for us to achieve at our level and at the timeframe that we had, but piece it together in the way that he did.
Andy: If I remember correctly, you guys really found the location pretty fast and I don’t think you even scouted, did you?
Devon: Oh, we did scout. Yeah, Rory and I and J-Bar (bass player Jesse Baurle) went out and we walked around a handful of different locations that Rory thought of in Saint Paul. Then literally I think it was that same day, Matt (Devon’s boyfriend) was there, J-Bar was there, Jamey (band’s manager) was there. Jamey was like ‘Oh, we should go check out Taylor’s Falls and we should check out, across the river there are a few National Parks, and water falls, and different sites.’ And it wasn’t until after Rory had gone and Jamey, Matt, J-Bar, and I went off on our own little solo adventure we found the spot in Taylor’s Falls that we wanted to film at. And it was like a day of scouting so we didn’t do a whole lot, but we definitely, we put in the effort. We even, I think, made a Facebook post where we were like “Where should we film?” Because we knew what we wanted it to look like, but we had no idea where that location was going to be.
Andy: What do you remember thinking when you first saw it all put together?
Devon: I remember sitting in the basement of the brewery (Big Wood Brewery) and watching the first final-ish cut of the music video and just being like ‘Oh my God, this is it.’ Because I mean we’d been working on it for so long, and the concepts had been talked about and pieced together, and the ideas had been tossed around, and we almost went so many different directions with this video just because the concept of it was so vague. We recorded so many different things for it, because we were like ‘I don’t know, this might work. I don’t know this might work.’ And when I finally watched it I was like ‘Oh my God. No, we did it. We’re done. It’s okay. We did it. We got everything we needed. It did what it was supposed to.
Andy: I know you were running barefoot in the video. Whose decision was that, and have your feet recovered yet?
Devon: Well, so, actually, I was barefoot filming everything outside, because, if you look, we are on the cliffside in Taylor’s Falls. I actually brought, like, three different pairs of high heels to wear for filming with my outfit. I had this big, long, princess ballgown, and I brought all these different shoes to wear with it. I had jewelry, I had done my nails, I had my hair and makeup done, and we got to where we were filming and I took a step, and everyone was like ‘Devon, you should not be wearing shoes. Devon you should not be wearing shoes,’ and I was like ‘You’re right.’ And so all of the live action shots where we’re standing on that cliffside, I’m barefoot in every single shot of them. So when we were filming the running scenes in the forest I didn’t have shoes on. Not from a creative, stylistic decision, but because I hadn’t been wearing shoes all day. My shoes were still in the car, because after that first filming someone was like ‘Well, she’s not gonna be wearing these so might as well just put them back in the car.’ So it wasn’t until half way through that running scene where I was, like, ‘Oh, shit. Maybe I should’ve grabbed shoes.’ Because my feet, I had cuts, I had bruises, I was hobbling around for days after that. I had to wash my feet, like, four times. And now, I didn’t even think about it when we started filming that and it looks so cool and stylistic in the video, but that was completely by accident.
