Full Metal Media works hard to give local bands their killer video moments
As a general rule this space is reserved for me to talk about local musicians; their music, their upcoming gigs, their new releases, and so on. In a larger sense though, my raison d’etre is to promote the Chattanooga music scene as a whole—which is why this week I have elected to tell you about a couple of fellows whose business specifically caters to and supports that scene. More on them in a bit. First, some history is in order.
Music videos were a thing long before the advent of MTV. Most of the time it was concert footage, but the “story format” video existed as well (think “Bat Out of Hell,” “Paradise Garage,” or “Space Oddity”). They were promotional tools, but to a large degree they were novelties; there simply weren’t enough good outlets for them (not in America, anyway).
Then came 1981 and the advent of Music Television which played music videos twenty-four hours a day. Yes, kids, I know, but that’s how it was in the beginning. This led to a lot of really terrible videos, of course. Billy Squier absolutely wrecked a promising career with one (watch the video for “Rock Me Tonite” and you’ll understand). There was some genius too, though, and a video could have just as much artistic punch as the music it was meant to sell. Suddenly bands that had been receiving virtually no radio play were selling records like gangbusters. Men at Work, for instance.
Yet even as the money spent on production went up, quality and interest waned. Videos never faded away completely, but the golden age was over. This is a new age, however, a digital age, in which the rise of the internet and social media has brought about a resurgence of the music video. Moreover, advances in technology have driven down the cost of production, until even local and regional acts can afford to put out a professional piece of work. And that brings us to Chris Campbell and Nate Peckinpaugh, owners and operators of Full Metal Media.
Already familiar names from their band, The Average, the duo has been working behind the scenes in an altogether different capacity for some time. Nate explains, “We started working with video out of necessity, a way of getting our music out there. At the time there really wasn’t anyone doing a lot of music-related video work in the area and the ones that would do it were way out of our [price] range, so we just decided to buy our own cameras and change our majors in college.”
He continued, “We are hoping to encourage the Chattanooga music scene to take music videos and live performance videos more seriously, as we have seen the benefits within our own band. We have seen how much more our attention our music gets when it is paired with video, and the artists that we have worked with say the same. One of the videos we did for Ryan Oyer was included in a Fuse TV segment they did on him.”
It would seem the fellows are already making a name for themselves, boasting such clients as Endelouz, Nick Lutsko, SOCRO, Scenic, and Strung Like a Horse, to name a few. Their website is currently under construction, so the fellows are asking people to find them on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (where some great examples of their work are already on display).
Their work is quality, their rates are extremely competitive. Given those factors and the rise in popularity of the music video, every band should be adding this to their arsenal of promotional tools. Otherwise, kids, you’re just leaving money on the table.