Sleeping Awake Video Shoot - Behind the Scenes

Radio station Xtreme92.3, Cleveland Ohio investigated the reason why video clips from 'The Matrix: Reloaded' were not used in P.O.D.'s latest music video. Mark Webb, the director of 'Sleeping Awake', says the reason 'The Matrix: Reloaded' footage was not used in the video is because he hadn't seen the second installment of The Matrix movies. He explained the imagery used in the video instead, "We had to kind of pick apart the first movie and find some symbols and images that would carry through the second movie as well. I think the most memorable thing was the use of the mirror, when Keanu Reeves sticks his hand through the mirror in the first movie and the 'Alice in Wonderland' references, the life through the looking glass concept." Webb used that theme in the 'Sleeping Awake' video pitting a real world P.O.D. against a Matrix world P.O.D. Wuv went on to further explain that "One's in a Matrix-type setting--a false type of world where everything's clean and precise--and the other's more in the real--how it's supposed to be--so it's more industrial-looking. That's basically what it's doing, going back and forth from the Matrix to the real world and capturing those images."

Go see the "Sleeping Awake" Video

sleeping awake. video shoot. behind the scenes

Ingredients:
One high energy band with spiritual messages intertwined throughout their songs
Two cups of special effects
A generous helping of great crew members
One hell of a great song

Place ingredients in one dimly lit, stuffy, empty studio and you have the scenario for P.O.D.'s latest video shoot. Not only is it amazing that this decade-old band shot back after a controversial departure of guitarist Marcos Curiel, but they shot back right between the eyes. 'Sleeping Awake', the leading single from 'The Matrix: Reloaded' soundtrack will tear its way up to the top of billboard charts as quickly as the movie will devour it's competitors. Anyone who doubted this band's credibility must recall the anthems such as 'Alive' and 'Youth of the Nation' that affected not only the States, but worldwide. 'Sleeping Awake' is like the third plague that P.O.D. is releasing. Critics are finding themselves in the place of Pharaoh. With its catchy, Biblically-inspired chorus spit by leading man Sonny Sandoval the track offers an eerie look into the world of The Matrix: Reloaded. Chaotic, glass-shattering guitar riffs supplied by new axeman Jason Truby of Living Sacrifice fame and a booming lower end supplied by arguably two of modern rock's most talented musicians, Noah 'Wuv' Bernardo and Traa Daniels, fit the movie score almost too perfectly. In fact, 'Sleeping Awake' almost never made it onto the soundtrack because the folks that make up The Matrix crew felt the song was almost too good and too revealing of the upcoming movie. After ups and downs from The Matrix crew, the song was officially put on the soundtrack and a two day video shoot was set up in Hollywood at Ren-Mar Studios.

Sonny took some time aside with us to explain the song. "It's kinda like you know King Nebuchadnezzar's urgency of Daniel to 'Dude, tell me what it's about.' You know? The whole chorus is 'dreaming of Zion awake' and we kinda used the concept of it's kinda like when you're asleep, that when you…you're in your purest form, you know? That's when you really understand the goodness and love, but then when you're awake, well that's the real world. So it's kinda like that's when you have to deal with everything that comes with life and so it's like a state of always sleeping awake. You wanna be sleeping, but you know, you're in the real world so you're awake. But then the second verse is the same thing, you know? Telling what the writing on the wall is, so it's pretty cool." When asked if the song was difficult to write, Sonny had this to say, "Naw, cause ya know it's the lead thing for the Matrix. The thing is that's why they like this is because they liked us. See they liked, well there's a remix of 'Messenjah' from 'Satellite' and they were gonna use that for the soundtrack and you know how 'Messenjah' is and they were like, "Dude, we're feelin' that.", you know? But then they were like, "Do you wanna do a new one?" We were like, "We can do it."

The video was shot inside one room split into two parts. Wuv explained the set's odd setup, "The concept of the video is to have us in like the Matrix world, but also in the real world and there's this mirror between us. It's gonna be tight." Within the Matrix world are 2 pillars in which Sandoval spent most of his time unleashing his lyrical barrage of Biblical portions. Add to that some random Greek statues along with lyrics to the hauntingly chilling song stapled along the walls and you have a room reminiscent of the Matrix world. Special effects that could only come from the now, highly copied Matrix style were added while P.O.D. was performing, including the first ever synchronized, choreographed moves courtesy of Jason and Traa. As for the real world set, it was complete with spaceship-like wires and television sets with the ever constant matrix codes scrolling down. The band got out of their slick, all-black Matrix world costumes to don dirty t-shirts and pants for the real world. "They took these new kicks and scuffed 'em all up. I was like, 'Ah man!', they used rusty chains and stuff on them.", said a laughing Sandoval. When asked if the boots will even be seen in the video, he responded, "You never know with these types of things. You gotta be prepared for everything."

In typical fashion, the P.O.D. crew is like no other. Every take was as hard-hitting and on key as the one before it. What most people don't realize is that one particular shot took 6 different takes of the entire song and will probably only be about 10 seconds of the video. The guys of P.O.D. aren't bitter though. "The people here were all tripping out. They were telling us all these horror stories about these other bands." explained Wuv.
"Yeah, rockstars and stuff." responded Sonny.
Wuv cut in again to say, "Yeah man, I kinda felt like we disappointed them. Man, next time…dude! We're gonna show up late."
The band and surrounding crew erupted in laughter. This is nothing new at a P.O.D. event. All the homies chilling with family in tow and a crew amazed at the gratefulness of an amazing band. Its non-stop insanity when family is present. Kids running and screaming while entertained by bass tech Judah Siegel and band assistant/tattoo artist Mike Kellerman. The first evening wouldn't have been complete without Sonny's gorgeous daughter, Nevaeh, growling at her cousins, Niah and Noop, while playing a game of 'Keep Away'. "She's agro. I dunno where she gets it from." says a laughing Sandoval along with his lovely wife, Shannon. Anyone who has ever spent an intimate time with this band feels a great sense of family immediately. Even Truby brought along his wife and 4 year-old daughter to the shoot. Discussions of parenting tactics dealing with discipline to kids of shoes with wheels in them were spread over the two day shoot. However, the greatest example of the P.O.D. environment was on the first night when Neveah was in the arms of Shannon outside of the studio and Sonny put his arms around both of them in a loving embrace.

This is the P.O.D. that I am still blessed to know after meeting them in 1996. So don't worry about what your brother or mother thinks about P.O.D. Come rock out to 'Sleeping Awake' with us here at the Warrior Klan. Can you hear what I hear? 'Sleeping Awake' is the song that's going to sweep the nation and rise to #1 on charts everywhere so don't try tripping up the P.O.D. crew. They are stronger than ever and the world domination has already begun. Don't forget to pray for the best group of guys in the world and be prepared for some of the best P.O.D. music to date when their new album hits stores in November.

Much love & God bless - Jason 'lonewolf' Wilson

*click pic to see larger storyboard

Dreaming of Zion...awake

Do you feel like I feel!?

The real world set

Traa bringing the funk

Jay eyeing Wuv's drumkit

Jay making all the drummers jealous by playing Wuv's drumkit

Jay in Matrix world

Traa, Jason Truby, Elizabeth (NonConformist22), Sonny & Wuv.

Traa, Elizabeth, Sonny, and Tim "the BIGNESS" (manager).

Traa, Jason, Elizabeth, Sonny & Wuv.

Elizabeth staring into space & Wuv.

Jay (lonewolf), Sonny, and Gracie.

Jason with Gracie.

Sonny with Cookbook and Joey the Jerk of l.a. symphony.

Cesar Botero of the band Syndrome (Sonny's body double).

Sonny, Elizabeth, and Wuv the tiger.

Sonny, Elizabeth, and Wuv with his TheSouthtown.com April Fools news story.

Cesar Botero.

Sonny with Cesar Botero.

Elizabeth with Cesar.

Cesar.

Judah "the genie" Siegel (bass tech) with Elizabeth playing Truby's guitar.

Judah (making fun of Eliz's southern accent) and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth trying to rock out like Truby.

Natalie, Sonny, and Micah of The Deal of Facedown Records.

Jason with Elizabeth.

sleeping.awake.

aka the first time i met p.o.d.

by Elizabeth (NonConformist22)

When we first got to the shoot and we were about to pull up to the gate, all of a sudden we noticed that the car in front of us was actually Wuv. It first hit me right then that the whole band was just steps away from me. We parked and then went in the studio and I could see all of them standing a distance away. I met Sonny, shook his hand, and he noticed the Brown shirt I was wearing and said he liked it. Then I shook Wuv's hand and he said he liked the shirt too. Traa was the only one relaxing at that moment so we came up to him and said hi. Later we met Jason and he was just as cool as the other guys. I took a picture with him and he said he'd come back and do some more pictures if I'd like him to. We all started to look around the set but pretty much stayed out of everyone's way. We could see the cameras right in front of us so we had a good view. At first the set was very open but as the day progressed they built walls around it. All of the guys were dressed very cool for the scene. The set was very nice as well, it fit in with the whole vibe of the video. I met Judah Siegel, the bass tech, and talked to him for a bit with everyone else. It was nice that the DVD pointed out who a lot of the behind the scenes people were because then I was able to tell who was which person. Traa and Wuv talked to all of us for a while. Sonny earlier joked that I was "talking his ears off" because I was pretty quiet due to just shock and trying to take the whole scene in. Jason came back later and took a few more pictures to make sure they came out alright.

The next day, Sunday, Traa greeted us a little while after he walked in and joked about how dirty his shirt looked. It was the lunch break when we got there, so we explored the set for a while. Judah let me hold Jason's guitar and strike some poses with it. Later he said he was trying to think of what would be cool for a warrior to experience at the shoot, so that was very kind of him to be so thoughtful. We met Sonny's stunt double, Cesar Botero. He told us he is in a band called Sindrome and he also told us about what other kind of work he has done, like how he was in Little Nicky and how he also was in a video shoot with the Insane Clown Posse. He was surprised at how much the band paid attention to him and talked to him. Sonny even told wardrobe department to give Cesar some good clean clothes instead of making him wear, as Sonny was saying, "my dirty sweaty shirt." Later on, I talked to Mike Kelley (the drum tech) for a while about his job and his whole experience with the band. He really gave me a good insight as to what his job is. By this point I was becoming impressed by how hard everyone had to work- the band, the tech guys, even down to makeup people. The director (Mark Webb) and the others were working very hard. One thing that was very noticeable about the shoot was that they had to do so many motions over and over with the same section of the song playing over and over to make sure they got it just right. While I was talking to Mike, Sonny was giving Andrea and Jay a description of the lyrics. Later Traa walked over and all of us talked to Traa and Sonny for a while. They moved to a different part of the scene, so we gathered around and watched them film. It was a lot of hard work for the band. They kept making Sonny do several motions a few times. Every time there was a break people would run to them and either fix makeup, wipe sweat off of them, or give them something to eat or drink.

Later, we all went back to the stage and watched them continue to record. At one point we walked over to Sonny and Wuv and showed him the April fools article from thesouthtown.com. He was a bit concerned at first then started roaring with laughter but concluded that it should be the last time, haha. I talked to Jason for a while about his career in Living Sacrifice and I made sure to encourage him and tell him all of the warriors were supporting and praying for him all the way.

Then as we were getting ready to leave, we all stopped outside, I talked to Wuv for a while. He talked about all sorts of stuff. He didn't seem to understand when I talked about grits and when I said "y'all" with my southern accent and kept looking to Jay for some help, haha. Then he reached in his pocket and gave me his wristband that he had been wearing in the video. I showed him a picture of me when I dressed up as Sonny on celebrity day (tattoos, dreads, and all) and Tattoo Mike, who was standing next to me, seemed to really like it, although he pointed out a few things wrong with it, haha. Then Mike made me come over to Wuv's car while Wuv searched for something to give me, and he finally found a hat with "SD" on the front, and both of them were like "SD! That's where its at!" Then Mike made me actually sign the picture of me "To Sonny - Elizabeth." Then Wuv told Jay, Andrea, and Matt to make sure to take me out to eat some good Mexican food while I was in Cali. Tattoo Mike insisted it would "change your whole frame of mind!"

The whole video was a culture shock for me because not many people in my area have tattoos and/or dreadlocks. On both days I had been so nervous that I had been grinding my teeth, tensing up my stomach, and my cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. I honestly had the most fun I had ever had in my whole life.

And most importantly of all, P.O.D. is definitely moving onto a whole new level. The song and video are out of this world. Everyone was very excited for the Matrix album to come out. I always knew all of them were very down-to-earth, humble, real guys, but this more than assured me of that fact. P.O.D. is going to accomplish big things this year and totally blow everyone away with their heart and soul that they always have poured out into their music.

-Elizabeth (NonConformist22)