‘Beats’

I recently had a really cool opportunity where I got to fly out to New York and film an episode of a TV show called ‘Beats’ — produced by Shalom World, which takes a 25 minute in-depth look at my music and at me as an artist. This experience was something I will remember for the rest of my life, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

I won’t make you scroll to the end of this to find a link to watch my episode. Stream it now on YouTube or on Shalom World’s website.

Screengrab from ‘Beats’; credit Shalom World Media

Wait… What?

Good question.

Travel back with me to early August 2022. I received a few emails from a couple different people at Shalom World. I did what a normal, tech-savvy, easy-target-for-scammers artist of the 21st century would do: I looked into Shalom World. I made sure the email addresses all had appropriate host names and not some sneaky variation of shalomworld.org. I read reviews online. I even googled the names of people who emailed me. Story checks out, babe.

Now your next question is probably…

What is Shalom World?

Another good question.

“Shalom World is a is a Catholic, commercial-free, 24/7, HD family entertainment channel”.

You will have more questions, and I will do my best to anticipate them and answer them as I go. But for now, let’s get back to the story.

Screengrab from ‘Beats’; credit Shalom World Media

Storytime…

Okay, so it’s early August and I’m emailing with who I have deemed to be actual human beings who actually work for this TV network called Shalom World. They told me about their show, ‘Beats’, and asked if I’d be interested in filming an episode with them.

I watched a few episodes of ‘Beats’ and found that they were very well produced, and also, I recognized a few of the artists featured. I was intrigued.

They told me that since pandemic concerns have eased up, they’ll be shooting this season in-person, so if I wanted to participate, I would need to come to New York. I was excited about the idea, but I thought this might be the thing that shoots it down. It’s expensive to travel to New York from Iowa, and I couldn’t imagine how I could rationalize spending that money, even if I got a really cool, well-produced TV episode about my music out of it. So, when I responded to them, I basically had one question: who is paying for me to get to New York? (100% expecting them to say that I’d have to do that.) But they came back right away and said that they would cover my travel and accommodation costs. Okay then! So I talked to Matt, we checked our calendar, and I said: Sign me up!

It was about two weeks later that I was on a plane to NYC, sitting next to a literal rocket scientist, telling him this story thus far. I told him all I knew at the time: we’ll be filming at a seminary in New York but I don’t know which one, I’ll be staying at the seminary, the one contact I had been going back and forth with from Shalom World (who hadn’t responded to my text that morning) would not be in New York, and I don’t know the names of anybody who would be there.

“Well, this was a real plane ticket… So that counts for something, right?” I told Geoff, the rocket scientist.

“That’s true,” said Geoff. My new friend.

“I mean, if this is a huge ploy to murder me, I guess they win? They got me.”

That is sound reasoning and logic, Geoff surely thought but did not say aloud.

Geoff validated my am-I-gonna-get-murdered-today feelings, and he also validated my reasons for getting on the plane in the first place. Geoff agreed that it sounds like a cool opportunity! And Geoff is smart. He went on to explain to me the theory of general relativity in a way that actually made sense to me! (True story; I bring this up often in conversations now.)

Spoiler alert: I did not get murdered. There was a kind man named Jithin (pictured above) waiting for me at LaGuardia in a Shalom World minivan, and he drove me to Long Island, near Huntington Beach, to the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. It was late, so I went right to bed when I got there, and woke up to meet the whole crew pictured above.

We hit the ground running, and we shot basically non-stop for the next two days. These guys are so talented, so skillful. It’s really too bad that the only thing those cameras caught was me, because what was happening behind the camera was much more impressive.

Another highlight of my time with Shalom World was meeting Zacery Martinez, a kindred spirit and creative soul who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Pssst: Zac is an amazing videographer — talented, knowledgable, and hard working with a great attitude. This is my general, unprompted plug, aimed at whoever it may concern: hire Zac for your project, you’ll be glad you did.) Zac and I became fast friends, and any moment that we weren’t shooting, he and I were deep in conversation about all of life’s biggest questions. It’s a powerful experience to meet someone who shares all your same existential crises and yet did not go through any of your same experiences and does not share your same influences (aside from the Bible); because Zac is Catholic and I am… wait, that leads me to a question I am sure you have…

Allie, Are You Catholic?

I am not. I am also not anti-Catholic, and I have a deep conviction that Christians should not be so staunchly divided. So I jumped at the chance, as a Protestant, to collaborate with a Catholic organization like Shalom World.

The depth of conversation and fellowship that I got to have with Zac in those two days is a taste of what we are missing when we are so dogmatic about our doctrinal disputes. I am very thankful that Shalom World featured me, knowing I’m Protestant, and I am so thankful that I did it! What a rich experience!

Screengrab from ‘Beats’; credit Shalom World Media

Here’s one last little fun story, about the photo above.

The land on which the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception stands used to hold a large house, which burned down in the 1920’s or 1930’s. This large house had a big amphitheater in its backyard (pictured above), and Charlie Chaplin was known to perform there. The amphitheater even has a moat around the stage, and I was told that they used the fog that came up from the water of the moat like a curtain for performances. (I was not told how that logistically works, so I can’t help you there. Maybe Geoff can.)

We had the coolest experience shooting at the amphitheater. The director, Robin, had an idea to do a single shot take for a music video of my song, Stone Tablets. That was when I got to see their most impressive videography work: Zac was handing the camera to Robin whilst rolling so he could climb down a stone ledge then taking the camera back to finish the shot, Mesmin and Jithin were running around to stay out of frame but close enough to me so I could hear the music I was lip-synching to, we were working around sun flares, etc. When we reached the end of the song and Zac shouted the classic line: “Aaaaaaand cut!”, and all five of us cheered. It was such a movie moment. I loved it.

I don’t know if they’ll release that particular music video in full, but if they do, I’ll tell you.

Thank You, Shalom World!

Here ends my story about how my episode of ‘Beats’ came to be! Go watch it and if you like it, share it! Thank you for reading to the end of this epic post.