Interboro alum in the running for CMT award
Music video director and Glenolden native Steve Condon is hoping third time’s a charm at bringing home some hardware from the CMT Music Awards this week.
The Interboro alumnus contends for best group music video for Old Dominion’s “Song for Another Time” at the fan-voted June 7 kudos fest that honors the best in country music videos and television appearances. Condon and Old Dominion earned two nominations last year including breakthrough video for their “Back to the Future”inspired concept for “Break Up With Him”.
The creative pairing continued with the retrospect theme for this year’s nominated video, tracking the band from performances at recent shows with footage Condon and Old Dominion friends and family have shot over the years.
“Old Dominion trusts me; they know I’m nuts,” Condon wrote in an email. “And by that I mean I am a nut when it comes to this work, every project I push myself, my writing and my team to think bigger, crazier, slicker than the last project.”
The flashback video for “Song for Another Time” was conceived poolside at a Las Vegas resort following another awards show. Old Dominion frontman Matthew Ramsey suggested bringing fans through a timeline of the band. Footage from the band’s live shows were shot in April 2016, with additional footage shot in a Nashville soundstage and old performance videos on VHS tapes brought to Condon to use.
Condon said he edited the video à la the 2000 film “Memento”, but that he didn’t want it to “just be that basic concept” of working backward in time, so he incorporated some flair that makes it a trademark Director Steve “jawn.”
“So we added the idea of starting with every audio delivery device through the years and (using those) light rays to pull you through the piece, using the visual delivery devices through the years on the hook lines and the virtual ‘tunnel’ for the choruses,” Condon said.
Condon said it’s crazy that he can create such visuals for the country genre that has been “so traditional for so long.” For reference, Little Big Town’s CMT-winning video last year for “Girl Crush” was a simple performance piece on a stage. Old Dominion lost to this video in the duo/ band video category.
“Our first few years in Nashville it wasn’t easy selling our type of style … but thankfully artists like Old Dominion, Shawn Lacy, Stone Senate and Phil Vassar loved the thought of shaking the tree a bit,” he said.
And it’s caught on in the country music scene with his first three videos for Old Dominion going to number one on the CMT Hot 20 Countdown.
“Not bad for a Philly boy on southern soil,” Condon added.
Through their production studio The 10:10 Creative, Condon, along with his wife, Dani, and another Interboro alumnus in lawyer Steve Molineux, have produced four videos for Old Dominion to date, the latest one “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart” released last month. Condon hopes to be back in the awards circuit for that video, which he has called very special to him.
Old Dominion competes for best group video against Eli Young Band, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town and Midland.
Fans can vote for Old Dominion’s “Song for Another Time” at www.cmt.com/ cmt-music-awards/vote.