Riley Gale was the lead vocalist for Power Trip, a metal band from Dallas, Texas. Their second album, Nightmare Logic, climbed to number 4 on the Billboard Heatseeker Chart this year. Power Trip was on the brink of becoming a major name in metal when, in August, the tragic news came that Riley had died in his sleep.

The podcast community I'm part of, Into the Combine, was deeply saddened by this loss. We shared stories about seeing Power Trip perform live and meeting Riley after the shows. The outpouring of grief was palpable, with tributes and memories filling the airwaves and social media.

One of the Into the Combine hosts, Stan Wolak, proposed a tribute cover of a Power Trip song in Riley's honor. Within hours of gauging interest, we had a drummer, two bass players, five guitarists, seven background vocalists, and one lead vocalist ready to participate. Musicians from the US, Sweden, Finland, and the UK all came together to honor Riley's memory.

I don't play an instrument, but I wanted to contribute somehow. During the pandemic, I watched a lot of "at home" music videos, which inspired me to offer my video editing skills. I told everyone that if they recorded themselves playing, I would make a music video for Stan's track. I was thrilled when they committed to sending me their footage.

Stan managed the audio submissions through Google Drive, so I followed suit for simplicity. I had no fixed concept in mind, knowing I needed to work with whatever footage came in. As the videos arrived, it became clear this wouldn't be a standard split-screen with musicians coming and going. Some footage was shot vertically on phones, some with GoPro neck angles, and some in 4K. Others were sent via Facebook Messenger, creating a mixed bag of quality and formats.

Given this diversity, I needed flexibility. I started the project on my iPad Pro, but LumaFusion only supported six video tracks, which wasn't enough. I switched to my 2012 Mac Pro and set up Adobe Premiere at a resolution of 1280 x 1080. This allowed me to sync the audio with each musician and then play with layouts, letting the song's tempo guide the visuals.

I kept every clip, even the ones I decided not to use immediately, so I could reintroduce them if needed without re-syncing everything. This flexibility made the editing process much smoother and is something I'll take with me into future projects. To set the tone, I used a news clip announcing Riley's passing, with messages from fans and the intro from *Nightmare Logic*. For the outro, I found a powerful photo of Riley performing and used the last three letters from Power Trip's name to spell "RIP."

After a weekend of marathon editing, I set a deadline for the following Friday. Taking a day off to clear my mind, I came back to the project and felt it was ready. Before posting on YouTube, I created a custom thumbnail in Photoshop to give the video a polished finish.

Here are some reactions I got from the musicians featured in the video.

The response from the musicians in the video was overwhelmingly positive, and I'm grateful they trusted me with their footage. It's a shame the project had to happen under such sad circumstances, but I'm glad we could create something to honor Riley, who left us far too soon. Rest in peace, Riley.