For Artsideout 2021 I wanted to do a fun rock cover that I would enjoy making. Because Dusty Hill of ZZ Top had recently passed away, I decided to do ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid" partly in tribute to Dusty, but also because the main riff is very fun to play. It didn't take me long to realize I would rather not attempt to sing this one, so I contacted my buddy Sean and asked him to help me out on the vocals and to contribute some guitar (his main instrument) and he killed it at literally everything he was involved with. In the process of making this I realized two ways it embodies the theme of endurance. The first is through the lyrics of the song, it's a song about living from paycheck to paycheck, a lifestyle that tests people's endurance as it's difficult to get out of that situation. The second is through the new possibility of in-person collaboration. It took a load of endurance to go over a year without being able to properly collaborate with my extremely talented friends and make some art that I'm very proud of, including this work. The video is of us playing along to the track we'd already recorded a week prior to filming because we didn't want to subtract from the performance by worrying about getting solid takes (plus I only have one 1/2" input on my interface so we couldn't have both recorded at once).
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this, we had a lot of fun making this music for you!