Contributed by Avik Ray, the co-founder of thecrossover.tv, a DC based YouTube channel that brings artists together to create unique musical experiences.
My father had a great line from my childhood which was “Let’s start to eat the Elephant,” an analogy he used when he was about to take on a seemingly insurmountable challenge that required patience, dedication and organization to complete.
We can all agree that last year was a wild one. We all had to adapt to our new circumstances and each had to figure out our own way of continuing to move forward in the midst of the pandemic. In response, we at CrossoverTV launched our "Lockdown Sessions" format, where artists record audio and video from home, to keep our friends in the DC music community connected and provide a platform for these artists to continue collaborating while staying safe.
We learned a lot with each new edition of the Lockdown Sessions and each time we were more and more amazed at the acts that we were able to bring onto our channel. From chart topping artists to YouTubers with over a million followers, we have continued to create collaborations with local artists for our audience to see and hear.
DC rock band Black Dog Prowl have been regular participants in the Lockdown Sessions and, after several successful collaborations with the team at Crossover TV, our friends Enzo and Josh reached out in July with an offer we couldn’t refuse.
“So what would you think if we recorded the entire Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album as a Lockdown Session with multiple artists from the DC area and we put it on the Crossover TV YouTube channel?”
Enzo’s question blew our minds. He added, “Not only that, let’s release it as one full, continuous video mirroring the vinyl record, which is how the concept album is supposed to be heard.“
The band explained that, initially, the idea was conceived as a live performance with Black Dog Prowl and musical guests, but the concept had evolved in response to the ongoing pandemic and its impact on live music. The Lockdown Sessions format seemed like the best alternative.
They weren’t wrong. This idea was completely aligned with our YouTube project; Great local artists, performing together remotely on some great tunes. Black Dog Prowl took the lead by handling all of the artist liaison logistics and made it clear that we would have creative freedom for the video editing and input on the audio mixes. “OK, cool. Sounds fun; let’s do this!”
As they would later confess, Black Dog Prowl were convinced that we would politely decline their proposal and shortly after the call the magnitude of the undertaking dawned on them. The band rose to the challenge like champions and pulled together a roster of artists they either knew or admired from the DC area and we were off to the races. The project took months of curation, recruitment, recording, and editing, but it was all worth it. Black Dog Prowl enlisted over 40 artists with a variety of musical styles including Color Palette, The Creaky Bones, Curse Words, Dear Daria (Maryjo Mattea), Mystery Friends, Nah., Jonny Grave, Eric Scott, Ben Tufts, BJ Kerwin, Jon Tyler Wiley & His Virginia Choir, and very special cameos from Kevin Martin and Island Styles of Candlebox.
The Crossover TV team were like kids in a candy store each time the new audio and video files were uploaded, passionately mixing the individual audio tracks and editing each video to create a current day visual representation of The Beatles’ masterpiece.
Josh from Black Dog Prowl shares, “We hope these songs bring a new breath of life into the new year. 2020 was such a hard time for everyone. We just wanted to come together with some of our favorite local artists and create something that people can enjoy and appreciate with no strings attached. We hope audiences will have as much fun watching and listening to these iconic songs as everyone involved had recreating them.”
The collaborators hope to perform this on a DC stage when live music venues begin to reopen. Until then, the YouTube release will be an exciting way to kick off the new year.
For us, this was a chance to collaborate with artists we had not worked with previously as well as those we knew very well. It was great to feel part of something like this and, ultimately, we ate the elephant.
Stay safe and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven’t already at www.thecrossover.tv 🙂
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