This is a busy time for Shaolin Fez leader Sam Ferrer. The composer and arranger, whose regular job is as double bassist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, is about to become a father for the first time, is engaged in shooting his band's first professionally produced video, and is working on new arrangements for the next Shaolin Fez gig at the end of August.
"Our previous videos were really just studio clips linked together, so this is really our first legit music video," Ferrer says.
"This time it's being produced and directed by someone else - Terri Oliver, along with executive producer Nicholas Sallnow-Smith. Oliver has a lot of production experience in Canada. One reason we needed to go professional this time was that the video is for the title track of our album, Calm Your Storm. We needed to do something different, and to make more out of the production."
Shaolin Fez are an unusual element in Hong Kong's music scene, and difficult to categorise. "It's neither classical nor jazz, although those influences are there," says Ferrer. "I say we're acid jazz, R'n'B and funk, but acid jazz is a very loose term. To me it just means that it has jazz elements over more popular grooves."