The members of Kick and the Hug lived through a different time in Boulder, CO, when the vibrant live music scene, and plentiful basement apartments, was a great place for a musician to make a living. The band is scattered across the country now, stretching all the way from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, and Denver. Such is the case these days; they collaborate via file sharing…but when it’s time to get in a room and create the real thing, Boulder seems as good a place as any to congregate and create, with its proximity to nature and the creativity that flows through the city. Lead singer /guitar player Doug Murray and Sam Young (drummer, keys) played together in the early 90’s Boulder stalwart the Wine bottles, before Young went on to serve stints with the Samples and Devotchka. The band is also joined by multi-instrumentalist Mike Ferguson on bass, strings, and vocals. The band’s sound is glued together by lead guitarist and in-house producer Tyler Skye. Skye is picking up steam as a producer and is best known for his work with indie upstarts FRND CRCL and The Idea. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? We’re a new band. It’s our first release… the first single from our upcoming full album release “Ladies and Gentleman, Kick and the Hug.” As a band, we were discussing those first moments when we discover new songs… and what our impression was of what the artist or band might look like. What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)? This song is about “getting the band back together” and playing live, or getting your friends back together and seeing a band, live. If we could have pulled it off, we would have shot this in the cliche “packed live music dive bar” environment that we love, but Mr Covid wasn’t having any of that. So the next best thing was just shooting us playing, so people know Kick and the Hug is a band. It’s not a side project, a solo project, a piece of software… it’s dudes with guitars and drums and noisemaker things, a band. What was the process of making this video? Well… all of us live in cities all across the country. So the first thing we had to do was all get to the sane place at the same time. No easy feet. We didn’t have the luxury of spending too much time on a concept. The crew we had lined up to light the session bailed on us two days before we all flew to Philadelphia. Lame, so most of our efforts were just making sure the right gear and technicians showed up on set. We figured … if we couldn’t come up with something as clever as Ok Go’s treadmill video, or PSY’s Gangnam Style, then we should at least make sure it looks good. We think we accomplished that… the lighting has a nice chill vibe to it, and the background graphics are from our album cover. We also figured out how to squeeze in a little fun bit in the beginning… and we found a box of shirts in the warehouse that we shot it in … they became our wardrobe. Someone online said we were dressed like undertakers… which is fine, that’s fair… but I still think we look better than had we not found those shirts. |
Modern Mystery 