David Schelzel - The Videos

If you were a college-radio aficionado in the late '80s and early '90s, the sort of person whose tastes were shaped profoundly by the artists being played - or even mentioned offhandedly - on MTV's 120 Minutes, then you surely must remember The Ocean Blue, a band who hailed from Pennsylvania but whose sound seemed tailor-made for the cover of New Musical Express.

While their lineup may have fluctuated over the years, they're still going strong, with David Schelzel remaining at the helm, and there's never been a better time to be a fan of the band: in addition to their trio of release for Sire Records - The Ocean Blue, Cerulean, and Between the Rhythm & Sound - all earning 180-gram vinyl reissues, the band is currently playing shows where they're performing those first two albums in their entirety.

Alas, the Nov. 19 show in New York City is sold out, as is the Nov. 21 show in Washington, DC, but there's always the Pennsylvania shows on Nov. 20 in Philadelphia and Nov. 22 in Lancaster. And if you aren't fortunate enough to be able to catch them on this particular jaunt, here's a little something to serve as salve on the wound: Schelzel was kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting with Rhino a bit about each of the band's videos from the Sire era.

Rhino: How was the experience of making your first video? Was it surreal?

David Schelzel: Oh, yeah. I mean, it was another time and another place. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. [Laughs.] I mean, think about it. When I was growing up as a teenager, there were very few places I could see or even hear the kind of music I liked, and that was basically college radio - which I began to discover as a teenager - and MTV. The popular radio stations in my area when I was growing up didn't play the kind of music I liked, and the concert venues where those artists were playing, I was too young to go to. So MTV was really an important thing for us in our teenage years, to kind of see and be exposed to interesting music, particularly when they started doing specialty shows like 120 Minutes.

So videos were a big deal for us as we were a young band, and by the time we got our record deal, it was an integral part of how bands were promoted in those days, too. And the amount of money of money spent on those videos… It staggers my mind when I think about it now. [Laughs.] So, yeah, it was a big deal to do that first video. It wasn't quite what I would've wanted to do artistically, but it was certainly an amazing experience.

Rhino: Were there discussions about what the video would be, or was it just a case of “let's get something knocked out for you”?

DS: Well, you know, we were all really young and really green, and we'd just signed to what was our favorite record label and basically the greatest label we thought had ever existed: Sire Records. And Warner Brothers was right up there, too. So working with them, we just kind of deferred to them. We really didn't exercise a lot of artistic freedom, in that we didn't really know anything about how to make a video. We knew generally the kinds of videos that we liked, but we didn't get too involved in the first video, and after we did “Between Something and Nothing,” we… Well, I was not too happy with that video. I mean, it's fine and everything, and a lot of people like it, and that's cool, but as the songwriter, it didn't reflect the song as much as I'd hoped it would. It was basically our video director's interpretation of our song, which involved a pretty French model - who was great - and me singing in front of paintings.

DS: “Between Something and Nothing” was cool and everything, but the next video that we did, I think we really kind of said, “Hey, look, this is what the song is about, and here are our ideas about how to approach it.” It was with the same director, but I felt like that one - “Drifting, Falling” - really reflected the song a lot more. We went to Hershey, Pennsylvania - our hometown - to do that video, and it kind of reflects the fact that it's a song on growing up. I thought it captured that kind of vibe well.

DS: You know, I think that video was… [Starts to laugh.] Again, it was probably not what I would've wanted. I liked the idea that we involved an actual ballerina. She was great. Really, really good. But as to how I felt about it, you know, it's a tough question to answer…because it was so long ago! And I look at it with different eyes now. I was really glad that that song made it into a video, and I like the performance aspect of it. I like how we interact with the ballerina. I actually hadn't watched that one for a long time, but it was featured on Yahoo Music, I think it was, when they did a piece on videos with ballerinas because of Taylor Swift's “Shake It Off.” So they listed the top 15 ballerina videos of all time and we were on it, so I was, like, “Oh, wow, I haven't seen the video for a long time.” So I watched it, and I was, like, “Oh, boy, I totally forgot about all this stuff!” But it was nice to see that song become a video.

Rhino: Were there any songs for which you envisioned making videos that never came to fruition?

DS: Yes, quite a few off the Sire catalog. We almost did a video for “Vanity Fair,” which was the third single off the first record. You know, I can't remember why that never happened, but that involved what I thought was sort of a pretty good treatment. That's a very allegorical and visual-imagery kind of song that I think would've made for an interesting video. For Cerulean, there were…two videos, I think? “Ballerina” and “Mercury.” But we never made one for the title track, so it would've been nice to do one for that song.

DS: For the third record (Beneath the Rhythm & Sound), we did two videos as well, I think, one of which I really like and one of which…not so much. [Laughs.] I really like “Sublime.” Next to “Drifting, Falling,” “Sublime” is probably my favorite video. We did that one in Iceland, and it was just a great storyboard and a wonderful experience making it in that country, so…it was just kind of a fun one to do.

Rhino: You know, it's funny to look at the screen shots for the videos now that you've given your impressions on them. “Ballerina Out of Control” looks artsy, “Sublime” is immediately intriguing because of the headgear…

DS: Oh, right, it's kind of a turn-of-the-century explorer thing. That's what we were going for. There's kind of that exploration theme, which I liked.

Rhino: But for “Don't Believe Everything You Hear,” though, you have the weirdest expression on your face.

DS: [Laughs.] Well, that was actually kind of a weird song. I don't really venture into politics in my writing at all - I really don't like political music in general, unless maybe it's from the '20s or '30s or the '60s - but that's as close as I've ever gotten. It's just sort of a very disillusioned kind of a song, and I think that the video is trying to pick up on those things. It was also influenced by a lot of stuff I was reading at the time on postmodernism and meaning and text and everything. So it was cool, but…it's a very different video. I haven't seen that one in a long time.

Rhino: Well, when this piece goes live, you'll have your chance.

DS: [Laughs.] I guess you're right!