Nella Thomas: I think 1871 is just a revenge story
and I don't know, I never thought of it that way.
William Locker: It's just a good old, it's a music
video.
It is a music video but it is done with an epic
western movie in mind.
Thomas: A cinematic feel.
Locker: And squeeze it in three minutes, you know.
Thomas: I think we were inspired by Lonesome Dove
and we didn't even know it.
Locker: The first line that popped up is --
(singing)
-- and then she started doing this --
(singing)
-- and she's like, oh my gosh, this is
awesome, we need to keep going with this and see
what happens.
Thomas: We had talked at one point like how cool
would it be to be in a Quentin Tarantino movie
with this song?
And then from there we decided, let's just make
our own, we don't need him.
Locker: Yeah, yeah, let's just focus on making our
own western here in Iowa.
Yeah.
We made it happen just through friends donating
their time and talent and just everyone coming
together for a couple of days of shooting.
My buddy Stephan Hanson is the wizard here in Des
Moines, Iowa that can make any idea I bring up happen
and this western was a bit of a challenge but we made
it happen and it just kind of all came together.
♪♪
♪♪The cowboys around here don't♪♪
♪♪drink the water.♪♪
♪♪They only got whiskey in their blood.♪♪
♪♪The cowboys around here shot down my father.♪♪
♪♪It's been me and my ma since 1871.♪♪
♪♪One day you will see me again, when you're looking♪♪
♪♪down the other end of my barrel, I only need two♪♪
♪♪shots.♪♪
♪♪Your peril's the only thing that you got.♪♪
♪♪And you'll be gone like the smoke of my gun in the♪♪
♪♪air.♪♪
♪♪See if I care when you're begging for your life and♪♪
♪♪me to stop.♪♪
♪♪I'm praying to watch your sinful body rot.♪♪
♪♪And you'll be gone like the smoke of my gun in the♪♪
♪♪air.♪♪
♪♪
♪♪The cowboys around♪♪
♪♪here murdered my brother, burned him down like a lit♪♪
♪♪up cigarette.♪♪
♪♪The cowboys around here will pay for their♪♪
♪♪slaughter.♪♪
♪♪The sound of their spurs is a curse I couldn't♪♪
♪♪forget.♪♪
♪♪One day you will see me again, when you're looking♪♪
♪♪down the other end of my barrel, I only need two♪♪
♪♪shots.♪♪
♪♪Your peril's the only thing that you got.♪♪
♪♪And you'll be gone like the smoke of my gun in the♪♪
♪♪air.♪♪
♪♪See if I care when you're begging for your life and♪♪
♪♪me to stop.♪♪
♪♪I'm praying to watch your sinful body rot.♪♪
♪♪And you'll be gone like the smoke of my gun in the♪♪
♪♪air.♪♪
♪♪And you'll be gone like the smoke of my gun in the♪♪
♪♪air.♪♪
♪♪
♪♪The cowboys around here met my revolver.♪♪
♪♪It's been me and my mama since 1871.♪♪
♪♪
Thomas: I'm from Mount Pleasant, Iowa originally where Old
Thresher's is, takes place every year on Labor Day and they have
that old town that you see in the video. So we just got a hold
of the right people, that cowboy gang they are there every
year --
Locker: That's a real gang.
That's a real cowboy gang.
Thomas: Yeah, so they just put on their costumes and showed
up.
Locker: Brought their big shotguns.
Thomas: Yeah, and the saloon girls they dress up every
year and then same with kids, there's always kids that are
dressed up in the time period clothing and so they already
had little games and stuff.
Locker: The Bible --
Thomas: The Bible, that was like my great-grandma's Bible and
the gun was my great-grandpa's gun, or my grandpa's gun.
Locker: It's your grandpa's gun.
Thomas: Yeah, and what else did they have?
Locker: Her dad is the villain and we were dating at the time
too, we're married now. But it was like hey, can I shoot you
in a music video? A lot of it was just Stephan's awesome
camera angle that he gets and it was just kind of on the fly
because he's never been to the location before. And he's like,
ooh this is cool, let's try this over here, just kind of
going with it.
Thomas: Well and we had written down specific shots
that we wanted.
Locker: We had a list, we had a list of things that for sure
we had to get done and with her disappearing at the end and
the shootout and the eyes opening, those were all talked
about before we shot that day.
Thomas: And the whiskey getting poured in slo-mo.
Locker: But like me going through the saloon doors and
the hookers up on the balcony, that was all, that was just all
by the seat of our pants.
Everyone was really surprised by how awesome the footage turned
out that Stephan and my brother John shot.
Thomas: Yeah, I don't think they knew the quality that we were
going for. I think they thought it was going to be just like
a home video thing.
Locker: But thanks to slo-mo, slo-mo always makes everything
more epic I would say.