Andrea Hoang and Jason Edelstein are the co-founders of the Denver-based creative agency and recording studio, The Salt Lick. In the years since the company’s inception, they’ve grown into an incredibly important and visible part of the city’s thriving music scene. They’ve been able to put a spotlight on many of the rising stars in the scene, namely Deth Rali, iies., Yugs, and many more.
Hoang recently directed local indie favorites Sponsored Content’s music video for their new song “She Don’t Care About Fine Dining.” It’s a delightful visual filled with food and fun and a surprise guest appearance from a rising star in the culinary world. It matches the song’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek vibe and serves as a genuine display of both the band’s talent as artists as well as Hoang’s talent as a director with the ability to bring a lot of people (and animals) together.
303 Magazine recently spoke with Hoang and Edelstein about directing the video, coming up with its concept, the future of The Salt Lick and more. Additionally, you can watch Sponsored Content’s video for “She Don’t Care About Fine Dining” below.
READ: New Colorado Music You Should Know — August Edition
303 Magazine: Hello! So to start out, how did you become involved as director of this video?
Andrea Hoang: As a co-founder of The Salt Lick, lover of food, mother of Shelbi, and Jason’s partner, it was a natural fit. Although I don’t perform in Sponsored Content, I work closely behind the scenes to make these weird dreams come true. I am a hyper-focused and goal-orientated person who loves challenges. When I am approached with any video project concept, whether from Jason or any of our clients at The Salt Lick, I take it on as a challenge and it becomes a constant focus for me until shoot day. The music video for “She Don’t Care About Fine Dining” was no exception to this.
As soon as Jason brought up creating a music video for this song, the wheels started turning immediately. Shelbi would be the star of this music video, but what is her backstory? Why does she have a rivalry with a chef who’s controlled by a rat? What can I find at the thrift store or Facebook Marketplace that will elevate this production? What kind of magic can I bring to this music video?
For any video production project we are on, Jason and I are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other as we are putting together the storyboard, shot list, and gathering props. Many of our best ideas come from sudden epiphanies in the middle of the night as we drift off into a dream state.
303: The video is a great time. I found myself smiling the whole time I watched. How’d you get the idea for it?
AH: Our dog Shelbi, aka Chef Hoang, is probably our greatest muse. Jason was stuck at home with COVID one night and hung out with her in the studio and wrote a song about her secret identity as a Michelin star chef. We both love food and I grew up watching Iron Chef Japan. We started re-watching them together and the idea sort of grew from there. There’s a line in the song that’s sort of a dis on Chef Linguine from Disney’s Ratatouille. We wanted the campiness of Japanese game shows like Iron Chef but with a hidden plot twist from Ratatouille.
When making a music video, how direct is the correlation between the song’s subject matter and the ultimate visual story?
Jason Edelstein: We never want our music videos to dictate the meaning of a song. One of the beautiful things about music is how ambiguous and relatable they can be. That said, the process of creating the music video and recording for “She Don’t Care About Fine Dining,” was pretty cyclical. We actually filmed the music video before the song was recorded, and I think the song’s meaning evolved in our own heads after watching the finished music video to the demo that we had at the time. It definitely influenced the way I recorded vocals, and the personalities that I took on. I think this song made a lot more sense to us once we saw the music video.
I do want to know everything about that dog. Who do they belong to and how old are they? How difficult was it to get them to behave on set?
AH: Chef Shelbi Hoang is a 12-year-old border collie, Australian shepherd, and St. Bernard mix. She’s very talented and usually the smartest in the room. When we premiered the music a lot of people asked us where we hired the dog! She may be a professional chef, but she is not a professional actor. She’s our dog, and she is the sweetest dog in the world. She is super easy to work with on set. She knows a lot of commands and tricks so we basically just ask her to sit on a chair, and then she just sits there and smiles until we’re done with the shot. She was able to sneak a couple of bites of the tomato pie and got lots of attention from everyone else on set, so I think she had a pretty good time.
I’m also interested in the dishes of choice. Tomato pie and ratatouille are quite different fare. How’d you choose what you wanted to make? How was the finished meal? Who actually cooked the dishes and did it take you multiple tries?
AH and JE: The first lyric of the choruses is, “She don’t care about fine dining, as long as the food is authentic,” and we wanted to do our own play on the classic trope in food-related films where some extremely gifted chef spends their entire career in fine-dining, doesn’t really make their mark, and then finds their voice in comfort food, or the food of their childhood, like in Ratatouille. Jason is from Philly and tomato pie was a staple at every gathering for him, and it’s become a staple of every gathering that we host. It’s simple, and it’s delicious and highlights the quality of its few ingredients. Shelbi also happens to love tomato pie and has, on several occasions, stolen full tomato pies just before we’re ready to serve them. It was only natural to choose “Tomato” as the theme ingredient, and to have Chef Hoang’s competitors cooking ratatouille.
Andrea made the ratatouille and Jason made the tomato pie. In total, we made 3 or 4 tomato pies because dough fermentation happens over such a long period time. We needed to show the pie in different stages of the process, which meant we needed to prep several doughs at different times to film all of the stages of making a tomato pie in approximately one hour of set time.
Andrea made two ratatouilles and then coached Joe Murray and Zach Saipe (the actors portraying Chef Rigatoni Aubergine and his sous chef) through making one on set. The ratatouille was surprisingly delicious, we had actually never tried one before but we may make them again if we ever get a hand-guard for our mandolin. And the tomato pies were delicious, too; we subsisted on them for weeks after the shoot. Any time we’re feeding people, whether they are real or fictional people, they’re going to be eating well.
303: Finally, Sponsored Content will be one of the headliners at the 3rd annual CornHub party hosted by The Salt Lick, the creative agency and music studio you co-founded. What can people expect from the party and is there anything else on the horizon for The Salt Lick you’d like to mention? (Andrea Response)
AH: Our CornHub party is one of our favorite annual events that we put on, and becomes more magical every year with the help of our community of friends. I LOVE themed parties and events. As far as what to expect, do you remember that feeling you had as a kid when you went to your friend’s birthday parties, and you were just SO excited because you were told it was a themed party? You put on your best dinosaur, fairy, pokemon, or whatever outfit on and get ready to party with your friends. You put on temporary tattoos on your face, there’s a piñata there, balloons, and lots of food. It’s a lot like that, but there’s also live music, a fire spinner, scavenger hunt, and bartender at our event. That feeling of awe and excitement is what we strive to create for every event we put our name on. We want people to leave feeling surprised about how much they enjoyed an event that was centered around such a humble crop.
The Salt Lick is focused on longevity and sustainability. We want to be a part of Colorado’s creative industry for many years to come. We have a continued focus on not only providing high quality video and recording services in Colorado, but also providing warmth and hospitality to every client we work with. We are in an industry that is known for burnout and incredible amounts of stress, and we want the people we work with to know that they are part of a team that cares about them and their vision.