Helix frontman / founder Brian Vollmer takes a trip down memory lane, looking back at the band's "Rock You" video from the 1984 album, Walkin' The Razor's Edge.

Vollmer: "'Rock You' was filmed at the Toronto Brick Yards in Toronto. Eventually, we would also film 'The Storm' there as well, only inside one of the buildings.

The 'Rock You' video was a two day shoot. We had to wear burlap bags for clothes, including our feet, which were wrapped. It was spring and we had to stand in cold water with sharp rocks. The video was filmed by Rob Quarterly of Champagne Productions, and by the end of the second day we were running well into overtime with the film crew. About 2 AM Quarterly announced, 'That’s a wrap!' We said, 'Hold on! You haven’t done the shot with Brent Doerner underwater!'

You see, Brent had come up with the idea of coming out of the water playing guitar. Quickly, Brent and our manager William Seip corralled Quarterly and demanded he do the shot we had scripted. Reluctantly he agreed, but insisted there would be only one take as the crew we were all exhausted and we had run way over budget. Brent went into the water, which was freezing cold, and the result is what you see on film. By the time he finished the shot his skin was blue and his teeth were chattering. 

The shot was the clincher in making the video a hit. When released it went to heavy rotation on MuchMusic & MTV and led to major tours with Whitesnake / David Coverdale in the US, our own headline show in Canada, and a Motörhead tour in Europe."

Vollmer recently checked in with the following update:

"Last week we finished up the video for "Eat Sleep Rock". The video was shot by (former guitarist) Brent Doerner of Red D films at his studio in Kitchener, Ontario. Partially because of the Coronavirus, we had to film each band member separately. We also decided to go with green screen and use an 'effect' that Brent had been working on for a while. Well, the results were incredible and all my band guys put in great performances. As usual Brent was amazing with his video work.

We're going to be having the world premiere for the video on Friday, August 14th at 9pm EST during an episode of Friday Night Live, a local London, Ontario based streaming show. That's the release date for the CD through Perris Records in the US and Europe. In Canada, the album only comes out on vinyl for now."

Vollmer previously commented on the Eat Sleep Rock album:

"Eat Sleep Rock is a compilation of my favorite songs we've recorded since leaving Capitol/EMI. in 1990. The title track is previously unreleased. Also on this album is 'The Story Of Helix', a rap I wrote a couple of years ago to kick off the acoustic show.

The album was mastered by Harry Hess of Harem Scarem. Harry is one of the best mastering guys in Canada right now. Daryl recorded the two new tracks at his Dawghouse Studios and Siegfried Meier, who has a Juno under his belt, did the mix. The artwork was executed by the one and only Doctor Doerner. The back cover shot (which Brent manipulated in photo shop) was filmed by Victor Azziz Studios. Victor has done all our photography for years... he's the best.

One of the songs on Eat Sleep Rock is 'I'm A Live Frankenstein'. I wrote this song with Bill Gadd and Tony Paleschi for my first solo album, When Pigs Fly, in 2000. The video was shot by Ray Lyell (of Ray Lyell & The Storm) at the Conestoga Dam, in Hanover at the local theatre, and outside of Hamilton at the farm of the parent's of my friend Al Packham of the group Animate. Many of my friends and students participated in the filming: Archie Gamble was the bartender, Dereck Cummings was the mad scientist, and so on. For some of the live stuff we were 8 stories down inside the Conestoga Dam, between Elmira and Listowel. It was a low budget affair but I have to look back at it with fond memories. Sometimes the cheapest stuff looks the most honest years down the road. You have to use your noggin a lot more when you don't have money.

So here it is: 'I'm A Live Frankenstein', initially from the Vollmer album When Pigs Fly, released 2000. This will be one of the tracks on our upcoming album Eat Sleep Rock."