This content is sponsored by Elite Islands Resorts.
On a breezy afternoon, bandmates Sean Gordon, Dave Ferreira, Ron Griguts and Brian Midkiff cranked out their new single, “Island Time,” atop a geological formation as waves crashed behind them at Devil’s Bridge National Park in Antigua.
For a week, a film crew followed the quartet, members of Broward punk rock band Give It Up, as they hopped around other national landmarks such as the Humane Society Donkey Sanctuary and the Shirley Heights historical site, as well as at a pair of top-tier luxury resorts, The Verandah Antigua and Pineapple Beach Club Antigua.
Gordon didn’t imagine they would go from playing local gigs at neighborhood dive bars to filming their first video in a tropical oasis in a two-year span since co-founding Give It Up with Ferreira.
“When you’re a punk rocker, the last thing you’re thinking about is going to the beach on a Caribbean vacation,” Gordon said. “It was such a blast to go down to a place like that with beautiful views and stunning water. It was a life-changing experience for all of us.”
All it took was having the right person in the audience at Give It Up’s shows in South Florida. Larry Basham, COO of Elite Island Resorts, caught the band performing at a couple of bars in Deerfield Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Elite Island Resorts includes The Verandah Antigua, Pineapple Beach Club Antigua, and five other all-inclusive resorts in Antigua, Barbados and Panama that have been prominently featured in music videos and reality television shows.
“I was just blown away by Give It Up,” Basham said. “My thought was, ‘why aren’t these guys on tour with Blink 182 right now?’”
So Elite Island Resorts stepped in to provide Give It Up a boost.
With Basham’s input, Give It Up crafted the song “Island Time,” shooting a video for the track in Antigua. “Most punk rock bands are shooting skate park videos on cellphones,” Basham said. “These guys got a major production with three videographers and drones.”
Elite Island Resorts supports creatives
Founded by the late Sir Rob Barrett roughly half a century ago, Elite Island Resorts has played an integral role in promoting arts and culture throughout the Caribbean. The company prides itself on providing an all-inclusive environment to all people, regardless of race, gender and identity, with resorts featuring Michelin-caliber fine dining, breathtaking Caribbean vistas, unique cultural excursions and five-star service.“We’re the first resort group to have a fully female-owned and operated island tour company,” Basham said. “We’re among the first resort groups to advertise in LGBTQ friendly publications. And we’re also one of the first to have curated Spotify playlists for each hotel featuring very relevant artists from the Caribbean and South Florida. It keeps us authentic.”
A Los Angeles native who worked in the entertainment industry, Basham is always on the hunt for artists and production companies to collaborate with Elite Island Resorts. For instance, in 2017, English pop and reggae band UB40 shot a comeback video at a couple of the company’s Antigua resorts in conjunction with Virgin Atlantic. Elite Island Resorts properties have also featured prominently in the season finale episodes of The Bachelorette, X Factor, MTV’s Siesta Key, and Married at First Sight.
“Despite having this huge platform and international presence, we’re very committed to finding artists that deserve a break,” Basham said. “We work with them and let them do their magic because we want it to be authentic. We just have a really good time.”
Causion, Antigua’s reggae ambassador, is among the local artists Elite Island Resorts has linked up with in recent years. The artist, whose real name is Gregory Colin Bailey, and the resort company first collaborated on the song, “Antigua Me Come From.” Causion and Elite then released “Caribbean Vacation.” The video for the track generated more than one million views on YouTube and other video-streaming platforms.
Recently, the Antiguan government honored Causion by bestowing him as a Commander of the Most Precious Order of Princely Heritage — one of the country’s highest national awards. Recently, Causion and Elite released his latest song, “Sunny Day.” The track’s music video was filmed at Elite Island Resorts’ Galley Bay Resort and Spa.
“Now we call him Sir Causion,” Basham said. “He’s a really cool guy.”
Give It Up and Elite Island Resorts join forces
While Gordon grinds as a graphic designer for a living, his passion is punk rock. When a brief stint with a group that also featured Ferreira fizzled out, the duo began laying the groundwork for Give It Up. They found their drummer, Griguts, after coming across a Facebook post that he was looking to join a punk-pop band.“We knew the second we saw Ron’s drum kit that he understood the assignment,” Gordon said. “He's punk-pop to the core.”
After playing a few shows, Give It Up’s then-trio decided to recruit an “elite guitar player,” Gordon recalled.
“We met this kid Brian [Midkiff] who is just fantastic,” Gordon said. “He has so much knowledge of guitar to go along with his talent. He really elevated our music to a new level.”
While hitting the local rock venue circuit in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Give It Up went to work in the studio, working with master producer and sound engineer Kyle Stout at KAStout Studio in Parkland, Florida. The band produced its first two songs, “All My Fault” and “No One Told Me,” around the time that Basham began watching Give It Up perform.
Gordon was doing some graphic design work for Elite Island when Basham noticed Give It Up’s logo on his laptop and became intrigued. “When I saw them the first time, I was just blown away,” Basham said. “I went to a couple more shows to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. These guys are very talented musicians.”
Basham came up with a plan to have Give It Up write a song that Elite Island could use for a summer travel promotion. “We thought the band would be a great fit for us,” Basham said. “We came up with a concept, and they just ran with it.”
Elite Island flew the four bandmates to Antigua and provided a $500,000 budget to produce and promote the video for “Island Time.” The video features a pool party scene at The Verandah Antigua and the band jamming aboard a catamaran moored in front of Pineapple Beach Club Antigua. Michael Garcia, a Miami-based filmmaker and MTV VMA winner known for Machine Gun Kelly’s ‘Bloody Valentine,” edited the final cut.
Give It Up’s “Island Time” video will resonate with Generation Xers and Millennials thinking about their next vacation, Gordon explained. The band appeals to people in their late thirties and early forties.
“The big thing about Give It Up is that we’re all over 30,” Gordon said. “A lot of our songs are about how our backs hurt and that growing up isn’t everything that people told you it is going to be. We went in with the mindset of ‘whatever happens, it’s going to be awesome.’”
