Guys on a Bus present the WORLD PREMIERE of "Bella" (music video)

Music by Guys on a Bus
Video by Padon Murdock
Interview by Mark Neuenschwander

Sometimes, we can’t believe the amount of talent we see out of our own little city of Joplin. Guys on a Bus are certainly no exception to this, residing in Joplin but gaining traction all over the country. Their music is paired well with the visuals of budding filmmaker Padon Murdock, who shot, chopped, animated and directed this new video for the song “Bella”.

Our actor in the video is Braden Bare, also a Joplin native, who enjoys photography and design among other creative endeavors. Maybe this will launch his acting career too? Who knows. 

We asked Nathan (frontman for the guys) and Padon (director of the video) each a question:

Toad to Nathan: where did the song “Bella” come from?

Bella is a song I wrote as a response to my friend. She told me to write something happier. Said I needed to or something. She’s s wonderful person and she was right but at the time I took that nudge and took it a different direction and made this song. It’s a sarcastically happy song about the struggle of being a band that wants to write happy stuff but is often sad.

Toad to Padon: What was the process of making this video like, from start to finish?

The process for making this video was ongoing. We were working on stuff up until the very last moment. I was editing, rearranging, reanimating and so on. We wanted it to be a video that people wanted to watch again, and we wanted it to have a cool look that struck people. We knew going in that we weren’t going to be able to achieve a traditional big-camera spectacle (give us a break, we’re Indie,) but we thought it was new and interesting, and we leaned on that instead.

Video directed by Padon Murdock. Starring Braden Bare. "Bella" written and produced by Guys On a Bus, mixed by Jon Hill.