Snow swirled around Bend Thursday afternoon while Jamaican urban-pop musical artist Omar “Omi” Pasley heated things up in filmmaker Tim Cash’s studio.

Wearing jeans and a silver down-filled vest, Pasley sang his song “Take It Easy” for Cash’s camera during the making of the music video. Thursday was the first of four days of filming planned in various Central Oregon locations.

When Cash, who owns Far From Earth Films, was hired to do the video, he received the soundtrack for “Take It Easy” and took a day to listen to the music and begin conceptualizing a video for the song.

“They sent me the song and I closed my eyes for a day and listened to it over and over again,” said Cash. “I heard the steel drums and all I thought was snow and mountains.”

And there originated the idea of setting the music video in a snowy mountain town.

“The hardest thing about a music video,” said Cash “is that you have to create a story in three minutes.”

The story he created for “Take It Easy” involves a dream, a premonition, an ice queen, a snowmobile ride into the snowy wilderness and a rescue of a beautiful woman in a cave.

“It’s a music video; you can do anything,” said Cash.

The snowmobile scene will be shot from a helicopter and involve a stunt double for Pasley.

Pasley began writing songs at age 14 during high school in his hometown of May Pen, Jamaica. “I was constantly in the studio every day, developing demos for the day when I met someone who would want to manage and produce me,” he said.

That person turned out to be music producer Clifton “Specialist” Dillon, who is now Pasley’s manager and mentor and one of the people Pasley credits for keeping him grounded amidst the limelight.

“As an artist you have to be grounded, you have to be in touch with your roots,” said Pasley. “I have a great team supporting me, and family.”

During the next few days Cash will film the rest of the music video for “Take It Easy” and a second video for “Fireworks.” Cash first worked with Pasley on a music video for his song “Cheerleader,” which was shot in Bend during summer 2011.

“’Cheerleader’ was number one in the charts in Hawaii for like three months and number three in Dubai,” said Pasley. “Getting exposure and introducing me to the world at large. Those two songs have placed me on the map, so to speak.”