The Red Headed Stranger was a journey of discovery.

The Mastermind Collective

I took my own advice and realized I needed to create a mastermind group. At first, I was still determining who to invite, but then I reached out to Chris Bourdoiseau, Adam Puchalski, Eric Ritts, and Jeff Fried. They immediately responded, “Yeah, I want to be part of that!” So, we put together this group and started meeting once a month on Zoom. We talk shop, discuss recording, and share our projects.

We’ve even got a couple of industry heavyweights who occasionally join us for these meetings. One of our goals was to start writing music together, and “Redheaded Stranger” was our first collaborative effort. The exciting news is that Ekello Harid, a fellow Eric, Chris, and I played with years ago, has joined us. Ekello is an incredible singer-songwriter and a super-talented videographer – a fantastic addition to the mastermind group.

“Redheaded Stranger” is Jeff’s creation. He wrote the song; this is his first music video, which he also animated. So, here it is – we’re sharing it, along with his story.

The Story Of The “Red Headed Stranger” Music Video

By Jeff Fried

Magik Arts

The song’s genesis happened while I was driving home from a tour of Southern California. It was my turn to drive, and everyone else was asleep. To keep myself from nodding off, I started writing a song. By the time I got home, the entire song was complete – except for the bridge. I recorded it immediately to remember it, then brought it to the brilliant group of musicians I work with, known as the Mastermind Collective.

They liked it, and we got to work. The first thing we did was change the key, but before that, Adam added a killer guitar part. Initially, the song was primarily driven by a clavinet, but Adam’s rock riff took it to another level. His leads on the breaks were nothing short of amazing.

We then brought in Gerry Smith as the singer. His voice reminded me of the lead singer from Bachman-Turner Overdrive—a classic 80s rock concert vibe. He made the song his own. Chris Barbeau’s production work was stellar, and the band was completed with Eric Ritts on bass and Bryan DeHart on drums.

Then, life threw a curveball. The pandemic hit, and we weren’t touring as much. I started getting into art, particularly animation – something I had always wanted to explore. After seeing some work from a Romanian artist specializing in creating brilliant videos by blending stock footage, I thought, “Why not try my hand at it?” It was more complicated than it looked, and I needed help to achieve what I envisioned.

Redheaded Stranger And The AI Journey

At the same time, I was also working on creating characters and animations for games. It occurred to me – why not make an animated version of the “Redheaded Stranger” music video instead of using stock footage? So, I started experimenting and creating characters. The title character, the Redheaded Stranger, was based on a business associate of mine. The story of the lyrics reflected a wild night in downtown LA – the kind where you meet someone at a bar, get drunk as hell, and end up wandering the streets, eventually getting mixed up with a bunch of people and doing illicit drugs.

The female lead in the video is visually based on her, and I aimed to give the video a film noir feel – the classic plot where a man is seduced by a woman and led down a dark path. The man’s face isn’t shown much, adding to the mystery, but he’s a pivotal character. I also included two other female characters – a guitarist and a drummer – based on stock models I purchased and animated.

As for the singer, I wanted someone who looked like a rock singer, so I created the face using AI and then built the character around that. I never met the singer in the video, Gerry Smith. We did everything remotely, and surprisingly, the character looked quite a bit like Gerry, to the point that a friend recognized him without me saying a word.

AI Serendipity

I also used AI to create some of the backgrounds, including the singer’s AI-generated face. Given how much AI technology has progressed in the past six months, if I were to do it again, the AI elements would be more coherent and polished. But that’s a lesson for the next video.

So, that’s the story of the “Redheaded Stranger.” It could be better, but it’s something. And with that, I’ll wrap it up here. Thanks for listening.

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Discover the fun of “The Red Headed Stranger”! Hit play, experience the journey, and let the music and visuals captivate you. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more incredible content. Join us on this musical adventure and immerse yourself in the world of “Red Headed Stranger” today!

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