Full disclosure. Greyhoundz is one of my favorite bands. Full stop. I remember where I was the first time I saw them perform. It was like taking a slug to the chest. I was a fan right from the get go.

I never would have thought that I’d be able to make a music video for them. And, more importantly, I never would have thought that I’d be able to call them my brothers.

It was 2013. My son was a few months old and I was hearing news that the production house that I worked in was about to close. Not great news for a new father.

Then I got a text from Reg. “Yo, usap tayo”. I called him up right away and they broke the news to me. They wanted me to shoot the video for their newest single featuring Loonie and Biboy Garcia. When I heard “Ang Bagong Ako”, I knew it was gonna be a hit. Furthermore, I could really relate to the song. As I mentioned earlier, I was a first-time father, I just lost my dream job, I was searching for answers. So the line “Buti nalang biniyayaan ng isang munting supling kaya muling ginanahan” really got me.

All of this considered, I felt a huge amount of pressure because, as I mentioned earlier, I’m a huge fan. I needed to deliver not only a competent piece of work, but something that the band would be proud of. Something that I would be proud of.

I listened to the song constantly for the next 5 days. All day, every day. I finally decided to go with two key visuals based on the lyrics:

1. They’d be facing monsters as a reference to the line “Di matatakot sayo, Sasalubugin ang ano kahit lagpas tao pa to”
2. They’d be attacked by their old selves as a reference to the line “Ang bagong ako”

I reached out to my brother Luis Hernandez to design the monsters. I was always a fan of his work and he really went all out for the monster design.

As for the shoot itself, I got permission to shoot in a huge soundstage in Makati, but didn’t have enough budget to turn on the air-conditioner. Everyone on set was a trooper though. They put up with the scorching Manila heat just to make sure we got the video done. I’ll forever be grateful to everyone on the set with me. And everyone who made sure post production went smoothly.

I will always love shooting music videos. It’s the perfect marriage of my two biggest loves: Music and film. I come from the generation that grew up watching music videos on MTV and Channel V. I knew names like Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham. I was lucky enough to work with local visionaries like Pancho Esguerra, Avid Liongoren and Marie Jamora.

There are so many great bands out there now. All of them producing awesome music. I look forward to shooting some new music videos with some of them.

Here's the link to the video:

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