Shooting the Video for “Mexico” — Our First Single
“Mexico” was the first song Steven Jasik and I ever recorded together, so in a lot of ways, it was the beginning of Jet Lag Motel.
Our friend Jason Murgo engineered the track, played drums, and added some extra keys. When it became clear that “Mexico” was going to be our first single, I knew I didn’t want to simply release the song. I wanted to build a little world around it.
And I happened to know exactly where that world existed.
Enter Karlos
One of my good friends, Karlos Anzoategui, is something of a San Antonio icon. He also happens to cut my hair. Karlos has this incredible Spanish-style villa and is known for throwing spectacular parties, including San Antonio’s legendary White Party.
His house already felt like it belonged in the universe of “Mexico.”
But I wanted more than his house.
I wanted Karlos.
I told him, “The video is basically a psychedelic trip, and there’s this character who I’m hinting is some kind of shaman guiding us through it. You would be perfect.”
If you know Karlos, you understand why.
He’s glamorous, flamboyant, theatrical and completely comfortable being all of those things at once. He immediately understood what I was imagining.
Next, I called my friend Frank Leal, an extremely talented videographer who also happens to be a musician. Frank agreed to shoot the video, and the three of us started building the concept. We scouted Karlos’s house, figured out where different scenes could happen, and slowly this strange little Mexican fever dream started taking shape.
There was one other ingredient I knew we needed.
Dancers.
I had recently been at Karlos’s White Party, where he had these fantastic Spanish dancers performing.
Obviously, I hired them.
Leather Pants Were a Terrible Decision
The day of the shoot was HOT.
Not pleasantly warm. Not “beautiful day in San Antonio” hot.
Leather-pants hot.
We had drinks and snacks around, but after hours of performing, moving, dancing and doing take after take in leather pants, I was slowly cooking myself.
We shot for roughly five hours, including some fantastic scenes up on the roof of the villa. Jason played the drummer in the video while Steven and I did our thing as the band.
There’s also a little piece of Jet Lag Motel history hiding in both “Mexico” and our next video, “Listen”: I’m playing guitar.
These days, I’m perfectly happy leaving that job to the guitar players.
Give me the microphone.
Eventually I got to change into white pants and a loose lace shirt for the later scenes, and I don’t think I have ever been happier to see an article of clothing in my life.
Then Things Got Weird
Which was exactly what we wanted.
The song itself tells the story of a guy who goes to Mexico and meets someone who somehow seems to have been waiting for him. There’s a seat saved in a church. There’s a mysterious shaman. There’s a psychedelic potion.
And then there’s that strange acceleration of emotion that can happen when two people share an intense experience.
For a few days, it feels enormous.
Maybe it’s love.
Maybe it’s chemistry.
Maybe it’s whatever was in that cup.
Probably all three.
We wanted the video to capture that without explaining everything literally.
For one scene, Karlos hands me the cup containing the mysterious potion. We came up with the idea of having him put gold makeup on his thumb and press it onto my forehead after I drank it. It was a tiny detail, but on camera it suddenly made the moment feel ceremonial, almost like I had crossed into another part of the trip.
We didn’t cast a traditional love interest, either. Instead, we played with the dancers, adding flirting and chemistry throughout the video. It kept everything slightly ambiguous.
That fit the song.
Because “Mexico” isn’t really a traditional love story.
It’s about one of those encounters that burns incredibly brightly precisely because somewhere inside you, you already know it isn’t going to last.
The chorus pretty much admits it:
You say I’m funny when I drink. You love the way I talk and think. I think you’re gorgeous…
But we both know where this started.
Mexico.
Five Hours, One Villa and a Beautifully Strange Trip
By the time we wrapped, we were exhausted, overheated and extremely happy.
What started as Steven and me recording our first song had suddenly become something visual and tangible. Karlos had transformed into our psychedelic spiritual guide. Frank had captured this gorgeous Spanish villa in exactly the way we imagined it. Jason was behind the drums. The dancers brought the fantasy to life.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it, Jet Lag Motel started looking like Jet Lag Motel.
Then something happened we weren’t necessarily expecting.
People watched it.
A lot of people.
The “Mexico” video began picking up views very quickly after its release and eventually sailed past 150,000 views.
For our first single and our first real music video, that was an incredible feeling.
Looking back at it now, I think that’s part of why “Mexico” will always be special to us. It wasn’t just the first song Steven and I recorded.
It was the first time we got to invite people inside the slightly strange world we were beginning to create.
A Spanish villa.
A shaman.
A psychedelic potion.
A couple of dancers.
A rooftop.
One brutally hot San Antonio afternoon.
And one very questionable decision involving leather pants.
Not bad for our first trip to Mexico.