Moon Fever overcame the isolation of a global pandemic to deliver “Shaking Off The Evil,” one of 2020’s best music videos.
Evil is a sickness that sticks to your bones and weighs you down. At some point, the weight of it all will buckle your knees and break whatever goodness remains in your soul. It will suck the joy from life, the color from your skin, and render whatever hope you have non-existent.
But what can you do? Evil is all around us, pouring into our world through our devices and the evening news. It is easier to submit to the terror than to fight a battle you will more than likely lose, but up and coming rockers Moon Fever refuse to give in. They have the cure for what ails us, and it’s fitting titled, “Shaking Off The Evil.”
Featuring a stomp and clap foundation smothered in Southern rock soul, “Shaking Off The Evil” delivers a musical reckoning right when people need it most. It’s a battle cry to the world-weary travelers who have seen more than their fair share of destruction, those who require salvation. Moon Fever is here to bless listeners with a gift of sonic redemption, a chance to be more than they thought possible. The band understands that life isn’t about running away from the things that shape us, but embracing the person, we became because of the struggles we endured.
The video for “Shaking Off The Evil” is an act of defiance. Filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group practiced social distancing by shooting the clip in various locations across the country and splicing everything together. Check it out:
Guitarist Mitch Micoley says: “Our producer Jim Kaufman set us up with a writing trip to Nashville where we wrote “Shaking Off The Evil” with Kris Bradley, Trick Savage, and Blue Foley. Trick brought out a flask of whiskey and some killer ideas; Kris brought a drum loop, and we based the original work tape off what came from that session. We threw around ideas until Blue came up with “I was born an unfortunate son,” and it just came pouring out from there.”
Micoley continues, “Once we got back to LA from the Nashville sessions, we cut the song with Jim Kaufman. After that, we all got locked down from COVID 19, and our SXSW shows were canceled. So I went back to my family home in Wisconsin, and Cody headed back to Amarillo, TX. We wanted to do a music video – but being in different states, we had to get creative on putting it together. We had director Matt Akana help us – who we met after one of our first shows at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in LA. I (Mitch) shot my parts in an old church that they converted into the Nancy Byng Community Theater in Abrums, WI. Cody had his friend James Pompa shoot his performance at the Groom Cross outside of Amarillo in Groom, TX. Matt worked his magic and edited it all together in LA, and it looks, killer! It’s a great time to release this song because we all need to shake some evil off.
Lead Vocalist Cody Jasper adds: “Shaking Off The Evil’ is a song about persevering through all the rough times in life, and it comes from growing up in a tough way. I was in and out of [juvenile detention] as a kid, [and I was] always in trouble with the law. I was in touch too much with the evil things in this world. I had to literally “Shake Off The Evil.”