AJ is the #1 indie artist on Top 40 Radio and he didn’t earn that title for nothing. His latest video which literally just premiered moments ago shows he has the talent to become the next big superstar.
Ok, your 360 music video for “Tongue” is quite possibly one of the coolest videos we’ve ever seen! Who came up with the concept?
“I’m so happy you enjoy it! A few months ago, I had the incredible opportunity to spend time at the YouTube space in LA, and they kept talking about how excited they were to introduce 360 virtual reality to their platform. In school and around the music industry, I had been hearing a lot about how VR is going to take over technology, so I figured why not jump on the ship before it gets ready to sail. My videographer, manager, and I all looked at each other and thought “is this something we can do?” because none of us had ever done anything like this before; however, we took a lot of time to research and experiment, and, through the process, we have learned so much about 360 virtual reality, and all the crazy things about to happen in the near future!”
The incredible Chloe Lukasiak stars in “Tongue”. Have you been friends for a while?
“When my team and I began storyboarding for the music video, something that was really important to me was to be able to tell the story of what “Tongue” is about, “broken promises,” not just through my eyes, but through different perspectives. Chloe, similarly, had expressed to her team that she wanted to convey her message of broken promises, and it just so happens to be that we share the same team! We had met several times before on different red-carpets, but when Chloe and I sat down at Starbucks to begin developing the video, that was our first time spending a lot of time together. She was so hard-working, focused, and determined to make this video as innovative of a project as possible, and I am so thankful I was able to have someone so intelligent and kind-hearted as she is play a lead in the video.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIeAi-fAOkn/?taken-by=officialaj
How was filming different to a regular music video?
“Filming in 360-degrees was definitely different than filming for a regular music video because it required a lot more preparation and experimentation before we shot the actual video since none of us had ever worked in 360 virtual reality before. Also, we knew how difficult the editing process would be in VR, so we did multiple takes of each scene so we had several choices to pick from; unlike most previous videos I’ve worked on, we filmed overnight and I did my scene at 7AM after staying up all night helping out with the other scenes!”
Would you consider doing more 360 videos in the future?
“I definitely plan to do as many 360 Virtual Reality Videos as possible. I completely agree with the notion that it is where all of our media is headed, and being a pioneer of VR would be an absolute dream!”
Speaking of videos, you recently starred opposite of Laura Marano. Tell us about it.
“I loved working with Laura! That day was one of the most insane experiences of my entire life! I was in Ohio, performing for a few radio stations, and I got a call that said Laura would like me to fly to LA that night to play the male lead in her video for “Miraculous!” We shot the video from around midnight to 6AM, and then I had to catch a flight at 8 to go perform in Indianapolis! I slept for a few hours on the plane, then got in the car, rolled up to the venue, and went straight onto the stage with exactly 45 seconds to spare! That 24-hour timespan was one of the most exciting days of my life! Laura was so nice to everyone on set, she made me feel so connected to her during the scenes while we were acting together, and she got tons of different types of food trucks to come too, which was also amazing!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHyIBRygjC6/?taken-by=officialaj
We’re going to play a quick game of this or that:
Cookies or cake? “Cookies”
Pancakes or waffles? “Pancakes”
Football or basketball? “Basketball”
Day or night? “Night”
Marvel comics or DC comics? “Marvel”
City or beach getaway? “Beach”
Nachos or French fries? “Nachos with French fries? :)”
Red or blue? “Blue”
There you have it! Tell us what you think of AJ’s latest video @CelebMix.