VIDEO PREMIERE: Veteran Rocker Brian Cullman Shares New Video For “Walk The Dog Before I Sleep”

To say Brian Cullman has a history in rock and roll is an understatement, but chances are you probably don’t know just how much history is there. Cullman grew up in New York City and was a witness to the sweet, glorious debauchery that was New York City in the 70’s. Though he may be something of a mystery to many music lovers, Cullman has had a long and illustrious career, one that took him to London and found him opening for the likes of Nick Drake, hanging with the legendary Danny Fields, and working with some of the most inventive players on the scene, including Robert Quine, Mark Knopfler, Syd Straw and Vernon Reid. Cullman’s own band OK SAVANT featured Sara Lee (Gang of Four, The B-52’s) on bass, Steve Holley (Wings, Roxy Music) on drums, and Larry Saltzman (Paul Simon) & Vernon Reid on guitars was a fixture at CBGB’s and through the northeast during the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Now, in 2016, Brian Cullman is continuing in the vein of his own extensive catalogue with his new album The Opposite Of Time, which comes out on February 26th. The album finds this artist channeling his seemingly endless flow of musical influences into something that is as much about rock and roll as it is about the power of the songwriter and the intense feelings that can be conjured up through an emotional song. Glide Magazine is excited to premiere the first music video off Brian Cullman’s The Opposite Of Time, “Walk the Dog Before I Sleep”.

The song is as straightforward and simple as it sounds, and it also contains an immense beauty, helped of course by the gorgeous animation of Drew Christie’s video. Cullman explains, “I have two pugs, Snack and Shade, that travel with me everywhere and they are like my children. I cook for them more often than I do for my son. And every night around eleven or twelve I take them for a walk through the neighborhood. My neighborhood being the West Village, that means walking through a posse of drag queens that hang out by PS3 and vet each others’ makeup; insanely beautiful women that frequent the little Japanese restaurant on Barrow Street; cool dudes with beards and sunglasses; and all the other locals taking their dogs out for one more stroll.

It’s a very social and very solitary pursuit, and it offers way too much time to think. I tend to drift into meditations of the Robert Frost variety (“I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep”) mixed with fragments left over from The Coasters (“take out the papers and the trash”) and Saint Iggy (“Now I wanna be your dog.”) The song really wrote itself.
Once I recorded it, I knew it needed a video, and not feeling great about getting into spandex, I thought an animated one would be perfect. When I stumbled onto the work of Drew Christie, an animator from the great northwest who seems to live in a world of old blues singers, homicidal banjo players and psychedelic daydreams, I knew I’d found my guy.

He wasn’t so sure and had to be talked into the whole thing with a combination of flattery, threats and just the right amount of name dropping. It’s not that easy to work Sonny Liston, Bunny Wailer and Geeshie Wiley into the same sentence, but once you do, all doors seem to fly open. I’m knocked out by what Drew did and hope we get to work together again”

Check out the video for Brian Cullman’s “Walk the Dog Before I Sleep”:

[vimeo id=”155199693″ width=”630″ height=”350″]

For more info on Brian Cullman check out briancullman.com.