Bo and the Locomotive's Endlessly Entertaining New Music Video

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Bo and the Locomotive, fresh off the release of its excellent full-length debut, On My Way, recently went on a tour that took the band to, among other places, Columbus, Ohio. There, it met with Thunder Down Country Productions, the group responsible for recent music videos for bands like Mayday Parade, Miss May I and Attack Attack. Videographer Kevin Cross is a long-time fan of Bo's work, and the group took some time out to shoot a video for "Give Me Something." Face licking, beer-shotgunning and the many moods of drummer Steven Colbert await you below.

Kiernan Maletsky: How did Kevin find you guys?

Bo Jackson:He discovered my music before it was even called Bo and the Locomotive, when I was just putting songs up on myspace under the name 'Bo.' Back in the early days of Berlin Whale, they took a trip to Columbus (where Kevin is from) for a show and they kind of opened a floodgate of Columbus/STL music love. The kids in Columbus started discovering and downloading all of the big St. Louis indie bands at the time, Berlin Whale, Say Panther, Jumbling Towers, Team Up and I guess my solo bedroom stuff got in there somehow too. This was like 2005/06, and Kevin and his friends took a liking to my songs. He started a small music video production company around the same time. When BATL played in Columbus for the first time a year ago, a large portion of the crowd was actually singing along with every word -- it was pretty insane. Kevin and I became friends online through my music before we ever met in person last year, and he has been talking about doing a video for me for a long time. Kevin does all the video work and his partner Brad Golowin does all the editing. Together they make up Thunder Down Country Productions. They're getting some pretty big-budget work these days, it's really awesome that they took time out to work with us.

Where did you shoot it?

It was shot in Columbus, Ohio, at Kevin's friend's house, in the driveway.

How long did the shoot take?

We shot for about two hours. We pulled into town and immediately started filming and then went straight to the venue for the show that night.

How many beers were shotgunned in the making of this video?

Ha, only one actually. We just happened to be standing in front of the camera. I distinctly remember saying, "I hope this doesn't make it into the video."

Who came up with the concept?

This was Kevin's idea. We have toyed with several ideas for videos over the years and we finally had the opportunity to shoot something, but we didn't have nearly enough time (or budget) to execute any of the ideas we had for other videos. So Kevin had this idea for us to kind of just be ourselves.. make an honest video with lots of character.

How many takes did one of you ruin by laughing (I realize some of that made it into the video)? Particularly when Steven licks you on the face?

HAHA! I couldn't even do it at first, I was laughing so hard, like just first take where I'm singing the song, I had to make everyone leave the area so I could get serious. I had no idea I was about to be tongued by Steve, I was trying not to move or break eye contact with the camera, I totally lost it after he licked me but they made the edit before you see me crack up.

Did you learn, in the course of shooting this video, who actually has the largest lung capacity? If so, who?

Probably Steve. It should be me, though. I don't smoke, but for some reason that doesn't seem to be true.