The Making of “Fucking Crazy” or: How We Hauled a Piano Up a Hill in the Texas Desert

Last week the music video for Robert Ellis’ single “Fucking Crazy” premiered on Rolling Stone. The video, directed by Revelator’s Erica Silverman, is a blend of Liberace, West Texas vibes, and Leaving Las Vegas. Since the video went live, we’ve gotten plenty of love, and a few very similar questions: “Was that piano already out there?”, or “How did you get that piano up there?”, so here’s the story of how it all came together:

Robert has a new album coming out from New West Records on Valentines Day 2019 titled “The Texas Piano Man”. Inspired by the likes of Liberace and Elton John, Robert wanted this album to feel distinctly different from his previous works and that included the “look” of it as well. He wanted to add a flair of the dramatic, of grandeur, and a little bit of craziness, and Austin ad agency Preacher was brought on to craft the creative look of the album, in which Robert imagined himself in an all-white tuxedo, sitting at a piano atop a Texas desert vista.

He turned to his frequent collaborator and partner, director Erica Silverman, to create music video based on the same visual theme. So here we were with an idea, a musician, a director, and a crew of impassioned folks; but now we had to actually make the damn thing. Everyone caravanned from Austin, out to Marfa in Robert’s tour van, which was loaded up with props, set dressings, and towing a trailer with a baby grand piano. (Thanks to Robert’s friends, Ben Morgan and Colin Shook, at Hella Ivory, who helped us track down the now famous piano.) Oh, did we mention we also brought along Erica and Robert’s 6-week-old bundle of joy, Buddy? Yeah, that’s right, these badasses made the music-video-Marfa-trek with the newest member of their family along for the ride. So, with lil Buddy all strapped in, we made the seven and a half hour haul from Austin, and rolled into Marfa, the same time storm clouds were beginning to roll in.

The rain held off long enough for everyone to head out to the ranch location where we would stage the piano, and put together the final pieces for the video production. We drove 30 minutes outside of Marfa through a unmarked gate and onto the ranch property which had been offered up by a friend of Robert’s. We followed the winding dirt road deeper onto the property parked at the bottom of a decent sized hill. Robert pointed to the top and said “The piano will sit up there”; more than a few people thought he might be joking. But with some old fashioned grit and determination, we finally started the haul. It’s exactly what you think…five people picked up the piano by hand, carried it ten feet, then set it down, winded and afraid. Then we did it again, and again, and again, until that damn piano was all the way up that damn hill. Once the piano was placed the sun slowly set out on the horizon and in that moment everyone knew: no other location would have sufficed.

Rising early the next morning, with a thermos full of coffee and sore backs from the day before, we headed out to location and began to dress the piano with fresh flowers and ornate thrift store decor. Robert changed into his full white tuxedo (which he bought a while back and had just been waiting for the right moment to wear) and positioned himself at the piano. Just as he hit the first key, almost as if on cue, the rain started to fall. Rather than risk getting his white tux muddy running down the hill, we threw a tarp over the piano and Robert ducked underneath.

The rain came in brief spurts but slowly seemed to subside. Knowing it could come back at any moment, we jumped at the chance to shoot. Erica and cinematographer Evan Burns decided to rig the camera on a gimbal in order to quickly frame up shots and get sweeping views of the West Texas vista. One of Erica’s main concerns was not making the performance half of the video a distraction or takeaway from the equally crazy narrative half of the video. She wanted the performance to be shot and choreographed in a way that made it dynamic and engaging on its own.

We rehearsed a few takes with Robert playing the piano and the camera moving around him revealing the landscape behind him, before we started to film. As we started to roll, the sun began to break, and in that thrilling moment, the whole scene came together. Erica had wanted to capture the beautiful warmth of the desert light that she knew would contrast well with the darker narrative motel room scenes, and here it was in all its glory.

We shot the scene a handful of times and the weather continued to work in our favor, so we were able to try some different variations on Robert’s performance and camera movements. The footage looked amazing and we all knew we had something special on our hands. The last shot of the day was the final shot of the music video with Robert walking off into the distance and out of frame. A perfect closure to the day…except for the fact that we had to haul the piano back down the hill of course. Compared to that, shooting some knife-play and kidnapping in a vintage car with the lovely Ben Godfrey, Aretha Choi, and Justin Soto, was a walk in the park. Watch the whole sordid final product below, and thanks again to the creative spirit (and strong back muscles) of our incredible cast and crew!