Donegal's landscape takes centre stage in epic Irish music video trilogy

A music video trilogy shot in Donegal is set to be released in the following weeks.

Salt Plain Highway, an Irish movie trilogy, was shot at multiple iconic landmarks across the county, including Dunlewey Church in Dungloe and Drumnatinney Beach in Falcarragh.

The first music track video from the trilogy, titled Ya Hurt Me Deep Love, will be available to listen to on Friday, November 13, and the music video will be released on Sunday, November 15.

The trilogy includes three soundtracks written, arranged, and sung by Pedro Campbell titled: Ya Hurt Me Deep Love, Salt Plain Highway, and Good Morning, One Last Night.

Each track will be accompanied by music videos directed by Jason Bonner and shot in iconic Donegal landmarks, and will be released in the following months.

The trilogy tells the tale of a Lone Rider, who travels across history and time in search of his long-lost loves who haunt him, across every step and every year of the way.

The story, written by Pedro himself, will be told across three distinct eras and time periods, weaving between a Civil War Period Piece, a Western and a 70s Road Movie.

Pedro, originally from Derry, has a background in graphic design and owned a business in Letterkenny’s Co-Lab, publishing graphic novels and comics, and said he took the leap to pursue a career in music writing after accumulating over 200 songs.

“I just wanted to move way more into writing, but the music was always there,” Pedro told DonegalLive. “It was so off to the side that even the closest friends didn’t know that I wrote music. I wanted to get going with it, because I had 200 songs that just accumulated over the years.

“I had a few bands here and there, and I played in the Green Room in Letterkenny a couple of times, so that was just a wee side thing, but I’ve always written music.”

Following the passing of Pedro’s mother a number of years ago, he decided it was time to step into a career in music after moving back home to Derry to spend time caring for her.

“That was a part of the path of me just saying to myself, ‘I’m gonna have a crack at music properly’,” he said. “There were no kind of obstacles in the way, and the stars seemed to be aligned.”

Pedro and Director Jason reunited after not seeing each other for a number of years, as Jason was filming a documentary about a mutual friend of theirs who had passed away.

Additionally, Pedro and the project's music producer and engineer, David Karran, also share a mutual friend who has passed.

“I have lost a friend on the film side, and I have lost a friend on the music side, and the three of us have come together and made this, and we have dedicated it to them as a result,” Pedro said. “It just feels as if their hand is on our shoulder, pushing us along… that meaningfulness was carried during the creation of the project.”

Pedro explained that the making of Salt Plain Highway came naturally, saying: “There was no big ‘let’s have a meeting, and this is the schedule’... it was as casual and as throwaway as you could possibly conceive.

“I started writing scripts; we recorded one song, and that turned into two songs. The music video turned into a day of running around Donegal and shooting some footage… we drove back that day, looked at each other, and went ‘geez, that turned out a bit alright, didn’t it?’ It was that organic.”

What was planned to be one song and one music video ended up turning into three as Pedro and Jason found the project growing in size.

“I turned to Jason and said, ‘Oh dear, I think this is a trilogy’; the story had grown too big from the first music video,” Pedro said. “It was all very kind of chill, relaxed. No pressure kind of thing.

“There was no sense of resistance pushing us back; there were no obstacles, no hurdles, and nothing was going wrong… It was an absolute blast.”

Pedro said he and Jason chose the shooting locations where they felt most inspired.

“I’m not saying anything groundbreaking here about Donegal’s scenery,” Pedro said. “It is majestically and epically amazing, so that’s a direct line to creative inspiration, so I’ve always loved it, and obviously somewhere, subconsciously, somewhere fills the muse and sparks the ideas.

“When I brought the music together with filmmaking, it was an absolute dream project. I was standing in two worlds that I’m knowledgeable about and that I’ve professionally worked on… it was an absolute creative sweet spot.”

The remaining two tracks and their accompanying music videos have yet to receive official release dates, but Pedro hopes to have them released over the following month.

To keep up to date with the trilogy, and to watch and listen to Ya Hurt Me Deep Love, visit EL Sequoya’s YouTube, Facebook, and Breaking Tunes.