Video Premiere: The Steel Wheels, “Scrape Me Off The Ceiling”
Can getting bad news be…a good thing? Well, no. Of course not. But it can help to shine the spotlight on the things in our lives that need work, that need to be changed. And shining the light on things that need to be changed is what The Steel Wheels’ new song and video, “Scrape Me Off the Ceiling,” is all about.
Hailing from the Blue Ridge Mountains region in Virginia, the four band members first branded themselves as The Steel Wheels in 2010, though they’ve been making music since three of them first met at Eastern Mennonite University in 2004. In the seven years since they officially became The Steel Wheels, Trent Wagler, Eric Brubaker, Brian Dickel, and Jay Lapp have developed an easy, comfortable rapport that lends itself to the kind of intimate recording environment that worked so well for their new recording ‘Wild As We Came Here.’
Working with an outside producer for the first time, the band recorded in Maine at producer Sam Kassirer’s rural farmhouse/recording studio. Band member Trent Wagler (banjo, guitar) says making the album was, more than anything else, just “like a bunch of friends hanging out making some hits and having fun.”
And, boy, do these musicians have fun. Whether they’re mixing martinis, editing lyrics, or playing for a crowd of music lovers, the band talks, laughs and makes music with an intense kind of joy.
That intense joy comes to life in the video for “Scrape Me Off the Ceiling”- the bandmates and friends look like they’re having a blast in between shots of chickens wandering around and the kind of technicolor leaves you only ever see in the Northeast. Trent Wagler, who wrote the song and presented it to the band, says it’s “a celebration of bad news and how it clarifies what we need to work on…I’m a little suspicious of success and more able to get my bearings when there’s a problem to work on.”
“The video,” Wagler continues, “is a mix of studio moments in Maine and a lot of candid shots on and off stage – a lot of which comes from our festival, Red Wing Roots Music Festival in Mt. Solon, Virginia. I think this video gives you a chance to see the real musician doing really real things with other very real people. It has an authentic feel.”
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‘Wild As We Came Here’ is due out May 5th and is available for pre-order, HERE.
