Music video produced by former MU student to debut on CMT

HURRICANE, W.Va. -- Former Marshall student Matt Zervos is making a splash into the music industry. And it starts today.

Sometime this Memorial Day, a music video he shot and produced will start running on CMT Pure Country.

Zervos got the gig by chance, as his mother got in touch with bluegrass singer Dale Ann Bradley, who grew up near the same Kentucky town as she did.

She asked Bradley if she was interested in having a music video done for her new album, "Don't Turn Back." And after Bradley saw Zervos' work from ESPN's regional station in Huntington, she decided to jump at the opportunity.

"I looked at the kid's work and thought it was amazing," Bradley said from her home in Nashville. "I think Matt is a creative mind who can venture out there in new ways but his mountain roots will keep him grounded."

The 20-year-old graduate of Hurricane High School will try to ride this recent wave of success when he moves to Nashville later this summer to attend Belmont University. He has spent the past two years at Marshall University.

He said his experience started when he was around 13 years old, using his mom's handicam to shoot video of his friends.

"I thought, 'How do I get this to the computer and online?' " Zervos said of how he learned the trade.

In high school, be became the videographer for Huntington High, compiling highlight reels of O.J. Mayo that landed him the ESPN gig. There, he did promo videos for the Big East and Mid-American Conference sports.

But the music video was a whole other world. He said he had a lot of the creative input on how it would come together, even scouting locations in Cumberland Gap, Tenn., for the March shoot.

"I scouted the area, and we picked out a location. About 98 percent was filmed there," he said. "I produced, directed and edited it. Pretty much did everything. My family helped out, toting my equipment around."

During a three-day period, Zervos compiled more than two hours of footage, which he cut down to a few minutes for the music video over the course of a few weeks.

"I hand-delivered it to Dale Ann, and she absolutely loved it," he said, adding that it was during that trip in April he toured Belmont and made the decision to transfer.

"I wouldn't say I'm giving it a whirl, but I'm taking a chance moving to Nashville," he continued.

Zervos said Bradley's independent record label has a couple of jobs for him this summer that he thinks could be the start of things to come. But he'll never forget the one that could become the launching pad for his career.

"We never really thought it would get on CMT," Zervos said. "The record label handles that. My job was to get it done. This will be the most rewarding thing to see what I've done on CMT."