In November 2015, producer/director/engineer Ben Guzman traveled to China with The Dustbowl Revival, an eight-piece American roots band from Venice, CA, as the band’s tour videographer. The goal was simple – to document the trip and produce some off-the-bus live music videos.

Ben brought a couple of Canon 5Ds and a stereo pair of Audix SCX25A studio condenser microphones for their impromptu live location videos. (The band also traveled with a complete complement of Audix mics for their live shows.) With just a few tools, the band produced one of the most visually spectacular, culturally rich, and artistically creative videos to grace the Internet this year.

SEE THE VIDEO HERE  (recorded on location with a pair of Audix SCX25A studio condenser microphones)

Here’s Ben’s story:

“We shot this song, Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin (a famous Chinese love song), in the city of Chongqing-which has a population of 34 million people!

The shoot was nuts. We had just finished a big theater show. The sun was going to go down in 30 minutes. We had to walk half a mile through a shopping mall with all the gear (instruments, mics, stand, camera gear) to get to this lake in a park. We hoofed it in 5 minutes.

We arrive at the location, set up the mics, position folks for the cameras, and the mics. As we’re doing this, a crowd is gathering. A cop stops and is trying to tell us that we can’t do this – but the crowd complains and tells him they want us to continue (they have been listening to us mic check this famous Chinese song) – so he lets us continue.  The camera and mic setup took all of five minutes.  I’m covered in sweat. I take a deep breath and call, “Action.” One take – no overdubs – just the two SCX25As, two cameras-done.

That’s why I love these SCX25As- I have so much to do to organize these shoots, but I never have to worry about them – just space people accordingly and go.”

For more information on the Dustbowl Revival, visit www.dustbowlrevival.com.

For more information on Ben Guzman, visit Small Medium Large