by Jane Lambert

Video Voyager with Nature Loves Courage

Nature Loves Courage takes the bounds of genre and blurs the lines, creating sounds with instrumentation and electronic elements. After years spent solo, bassist Jacob Bergman and drummer Garrett Smith join McKenna as LA-based Nature Loves Courage, the electronic art-rock group bending entire genres to their will. Out summer ’22, their self-titled debut confronts the absurdities of the digital age, proposing a brave return to humanity’s fabled roots atop McKenna’s multifaceted sound.

Their latest single “Dark Horse” and the accompanying video is going to be what makes their mark. It’s mysterious and aids in the story of the song. The red lighting with the horse imagery and the band coming in and out of frame helps create this space that’s unknown and intriguing.

We got a chance to speak with McKenna Rowe, the band’s front woman, about the video for “Dark Horse”:

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?

This song was inspired by friends of mine exploring the polyamory scene and their stories about their experiences. The arrangement and feel to this song is dark and mysterious, as if it could serve as the soundtrack in a movie with a scene with a swingers’ club or party. For the video, we chose not to literally depict such a scene, due to the complexity of hiring so many extras, and with the goal of not being quite so literal. Instead, we decided to allow some more room for interpretation on the part of the viewer, depicting the band going into a “dream state” or “surreal dimension” when the song kicks off.

What was the inspiration behind this video?

The biggest influences behind the video concept are David Lynch and graphic novels. I have always loved how David Lynch depicts different dimensions of existence or timelines his characters move through. In nods to Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, our video shows the discovery of a mysterious object that then “sucks” you into dream-like dimension, where the band appears to be trapped, eventually “spinning out of control” until the “escape” at the end…although we don’t really know if the ending is a return to “normalcy” or a teleportation into yet another strange dimension. The blacked out background and intense red color on subjects are also influenced a lot by Lynch’s choice of cinematography and lighting, and how we framed my face in many shots was influenced by how you might see a story depicted in comic book panels.

What was the process of making this video?

A big thank you to director Alyssa of Holy Smoke Photography (and assistant Claire!), who was able to take some tricky abstract ideas and translate into the finished product! She and I met before the shoot to discuss concepts…I made it clear that creating a mood was more important to me than telling a literal story with start-middle-end. Alyssa put together a shot list which is extremely helpful for a band to have…we had a good idea of how the day would go and what to expect. We used Peerspace (shout out!) to rent out a stage in Boyle Heights that had the blackout capability we needed to be able to achieve the surreal, red look to everything. Another thing we did was shoot some of the video performing the song at 150% speed, so that when it was slowed down to match the normal speed of the song, our motions themselves would seem more surreal. Alyssa also sometimes used a prism in front of the camera lens to create interesting transitions/effects. We went through about 3 revisions of edits to the video until we reached our final. I think it turned out very well considering the limited time, budget and resources and the fact that this was our first time making a music video. Personally, I learned a lot from the experience… have lots of ideas for the next video and how to set up shots so that I photograph best.

Watch here:

Connect with Nature Loves Courage
Website // Instagram // Twitter// Facebook // Spotify

07.27.22

by Jane Lambert

Video Voyager: Jeff Hilliard’s “Abandon”

Jeff Hilliard is an award winning video producer and director who’s newest work, “Abandon,” is a visual and musical marvel. His vision for the song couldn’t have been done without a video. This metal ballad and heavy rock song is catchy and easily gets stuck in your head. The video is one that you watch many times to not just listen to the song, but try and find new things with each viewing.

We got a chance to speak with Jeff about his video. Let’s dive in:

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?

Well I wanted to do an 80’s metal ballad, I thought it would be funny to tell the story of Dwight a 49 year old Uber driver that still holding onto his 80’s metal fantasy while living at home with his mother. He has a one stand with a married lady and he can’t let it go. While writing the song I knew I had to make a music videos for it, it’s just too good. The only way I good see the video was to make it verbatim to the song.

What was the inspiration behind this video?

I wanted to stick with the classic 80’s metal music video except my hero was not the cool guy.

What was the process of making this video?

They are all pretty much the same… I tell my team it’s time to do another and we set out and make it happen. I work with a brilliant cinematographer John Orphan and editor Bobby Hewitt. We work very well together and have a lot of fun making them.

Watch here:

Connect with Jeff Hilliard
Website // Instagram // Twitter // Facebook // TikTok // YouTube // Spotify

11.12.21

by Jane Lambert

Video Voyager: 3Q’s with Goose Bolton

Goose Bolton is a mysterious figure, who we are told came from outer space and crash landed here on earth in early AD 2021 after an intergalactic heist went awry. He has been releasing experimental music for a while, and his latest single/video “Lunatic” is one of them.

We spoke with Goose about this strange, yet powerful video:

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

The song originated as a sonic accompaniment to a story about someone who starts hallucinating that inanimate objects can speak to them. When conceiving of a music video, I chose to visualize this song because it’s one of my favorites on my upcoming record and because, thematically, it felt like the most appropriate starting point to accompany the strange images and narratives that swirl around in my head. I didn’t feel locked into any single specific narrative with this song, and so the Tiger Ji (the director) and I could really let our minds run free during the brainstorming process.

What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)?

The initial inspiration for this video began a dream that Tiger had, which contained the specific image of men in business suits wriggling down a city street while wrapped in plastic. This was the springboard for us deciding that the video should be about a person who is seeing something crazy in the city (that only they can see) and their response to that. Initially, we were going to have the video’s main character be chased by fish people, but then we decided that lizard people would be more relevant to contemporary conspiracy theory as well as more thematically interesting, as it lets our main character wrestle with her own reptilian identity by the end of the film. We were aiming for a very specific mood that mingled elements of the absurd, science-fiction, horror, and comedy. I decided it made sense for the main character to be wearing a hospital gown after having escaped an asylum because the word “Lunatic” to me always seems like it’s a title assigned by society to an individual, rather than a subjective state that the individual feels (“crazy” for instance feels more like it can be either an assigned title or a subjective identity), so the hospital gown was the most efficient way to convey that this person is The Lunatic. The version of lunacy we wanted to explore in this music video is not mental illness. Rather, it is a label thrust upon a person by others in response to that person’s reaction to outside factors or new knowledge. This is important because the main character is not insane—she’s just the only person who can see the lizard people.

What was the process of making this video?

We filmed the video over 2 days across different areas of New York City in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. The final climactic scene with (spoilers) all of the dancing lizard people is the rooftop of a parking garage on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, most of the street pursuit scenes were shot in Bushwick, and we filmed the subway scene at the 2nd Ave subway stop in Manhattan as well. The shoot was incredibly smooth with zero hiccups. Tiger is the kind of director that has every single shot meticulously planned and storyboarded weeks ahead of the shoot, which led to a fun and efficient filming experience where we could focus primarily on the emotions and physicality of the actors in each scene.

Watch “Lunatic” here:

11.09.21

by Jane Lambert

Video Voyager: Questions with Kao Wonder

Los Angeles-based dance-pop and electronic artist, Kao Wonder, just released his music video for his song “Safe Space” from his album, EVOLUTION. He employed his prior dance experience to guide the videos narrative, with Kao acting as a narrator in the story. Kao’s voice is very much like Neyo and his music is much like Dua Lipa meets Tao Cruz. “Safe Space” makes you want to dance along. We spoke with Kao Wonder and he tells us all about the video below:

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

Funny enough, when I wrote this song, I was actually paying homage to all my female friends who considered the LGTBQ nightlife (bars/clubs) their ‘safe space’. Many of them would say to me “well this is my safe space, here I don’t have to worry about men and their ancient pick up lines, I don’t have to worry about other women judging me or acting a certain way towards me. There, I can actually have the most fun and be myself and just have the best time ever with in such a free spirited culture.” How could you forget an answer like that?! I couldn’t! So I wanted to take that and turn it into a love song. It wasn’t that easy at first as love songs aren’t my forte lol, but when I was at the airport on my way to Atlanta to record with my Producer(s) (shouts to Tedy P. and Ced Ivory), I couldn’t figure out how to start it out….until I looked up and saw a guy take off his face mask (because he was eating – COVID rules), and he smiled at this female who smiled back at him from across the way. You could feel that type of warmness in the coldest of winters! So I said to myself, “It’s the smile for me,” and the the rest of the song wrote itself out. I would hope that’s one of the things that makes someone feel intricately connected when they meet their soulmate.

Tedy P and I have this thing before he creates each song, he always begins by saying to me “tell me how you’re feeling about this tune”, and I said for this particular track I want to pay homage to the musical decade that helped shape me and my creativity; the 90s! Something like the New Jack Swing, mixed with a little hip hop and up-tempo R&B, and Pop. Make it as if we were in1995. He did just that!! When the song was done and I heard the final mix, I literally shed a tear because it reminded of growing up in Brooklyn and all my friends back home. It reminded me of a time before social media, when we would run outside and play ‘Tag ‘ or ‘Mother May I?’, Double Dutch or Hand-ball in the park or on the side of a building. Just the fun we had outdoors, music would be BOOMING from someone’s boombox, house or car, It gave me this nostalgia that was a balm to my heart, so I knew I had to do a video to project these thoughts to the world, because I know someone in this world wants to take that same trip down memory lane with me. To get away from all these current politics and redundancies and just remember what it was to be a kid playing until the street lights came on. These thoughts are my “safe space”…

What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)?

Well as you know, the concept of the song Safe Space is someone being their “safe space”, meaning being with someone you are comfortable with, not afraid to be vulnerable with, the person who you can be your honest and truthful self. As fun as that sounds and as great as that concept is…what if we took an alternative look at the premise; suppose there is an object or place that you consider your “safe space”? What if it’s cooking? What if it’s teaching? Or…like me…..what if it’s PERFORMING ? My team and I decided to explore these alternate roads and rather tell the traditional story of’ ‘girl meets boy’, why not make Dance’ the safe space for our protagonist instead? If you look at the video closely, you will see two individuals who met doing what they love to do, which is dancing (shouts to my leads Indo Hayes (who assisted me with the choreography of the video and Malik ‘Gvmby’ Bannister who is also phenomenal). From an innocent viewer’s eyes, during the club scene it looks like as time progresses the two leads in the video separate, which makes our lead male character sad and a bit lonely in his solo scenes, but the element of surprise comes when you see an older version of them in the end still together. So what was he sad about? He actually hurt his leg, which prevented him from dancing alongside his beau (this is why he was at the doctor’s office and this is also he had a horrible limp with his leg up in the club scene) , but still, when he looks to the alley in his older form, he’s reminded of how much dance was his safe space. So the love story is there …..but the ‘subject’ of the love story is what makes it so sweet, and my Creative Director, Joaquin Sagarra, did a fantastic job of telling this story visually. As far as the “setting” of the video goes, that was from my Videographer Jimmy Collier. He knew we wanted to keep the dedication to the decade of the song, but he also reminded us that the Caribbean/Afro culture shouldn’t be forgotten about during these times,..especially with the Caribbean influence in Brooklyn (interestingly enough this also was a HUGE influence on me, shout out to my favorite restaurant still standing back home… the infamous Tower Isle Patty Shop, i can literally taste my favorite chicken patty w/ cocoa bread as I write this and it was literally one block over from where i lived 😉 ) . It was like the icing on a perfectly lined up cake!! 3 tier !!! This is what made this particular video soo monumental for my team and myself? This idea was so big in fact, that it inspired Ced to go BACK and remix the song and create a ‘Riddim Remix” (which basically adds elements of dancehall/afro beats to the song), in which we used for the video and which was released Friday 11/5. All in all, this project was such an experience!

Watch now:

You can find more on Kao Wonder via:
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Spotify

11.09.21

by Jane Lambert

Video Voyager: 3Q’s with Patricia Silverberg

Patricia Silverberg has always loved music, but never thought that she had the “proper range” to be successful enough. That all changed after attending the Lilith Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, where she saw Natalie Merchant, The Indigo Girls, and Sarah McLachlan perform. From that moment on, she knew that music was the path for her. When she watched those powerful women in action, she was inspired to take the leap.

Her new video to accompany her rendition of “Midnight Special” is all about giving a voice to the voiceless. Let’s hear what Patricia had to say about her video:

Tell us the story of this song. Why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

“Midnight Special” is a traditional American folk song with origins circa 1900. No one knows who the true author of the song is, but Leadbelly, a former inmate and famed blues singer, made the song famous in the 1930s. I discovered Odetta’s version a few years ago. Her emotional contralto voice enthralled and inspired me. I adopted the song and began singing it at local folk festivals. To make this song modern and relatable, I added a verse about “Tent City” in Phoenix (I live in Arizona). As a folk singer, I wanted to call out the horrendous injustices that the former sheriff made towards Latinos and anyone who spoke out against him. In my opinion, “Tent City” is against the 8^th Amendment. (I can only say this as he is no longer in power, or I’d be sent to “Tent City”) I feel like I’m doing my job as a folk singer!

What is the inspiration behind this video (visual, storyline, etc)?

Since I created an all-acoustic blues/Americana version of the song, I wanted the video to have an earthy unadorned feel to it. If I chose flashy special effects and images, the message, the lyrics, and the organic feel of the music would have been lost. Since I had a small budget, I used historical pictures as they are no longer under copyright restrictions. I found most of the assets from the Library of Congress. I interweaved a video of myself with images of steam trains (including footage from Thomas Edison’s studio) and prisoners to illustrate the story. I purposefully chose images representing diverse people, including African Americans and women. One of the images is of Ledbelly: the man credited for making the song famous.

What was the process of making this video?

My budget was limited. I used my cell phone with a simple background to capture myself lip-syncing the song. A small lamp sits in frame to represent the Midnight Special “shining its ever-lovin’ light on me.” The filming took place at Greenworld Recording in Gilbert, AZ; the studio where I recorded my EP. I used a video editing application to slice the footage with the historical photos and films. The final master of the song was added to the editor’s timeline. I added fade in/out transitions in between images for subtle special effects. Fitting the historical images and film into the same frame along with the video proved challenging. I had to crop and adjust each asset.

Watch now:

You can find Patricia Silverberg via:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Spotify
Soundcloud

10.26.12

by viktorsha

Drowning with Ghost Wave!

Over the CMJ week, Modern Mystery got to catch up to the pulsating 60’s sounds of Ghost Wave.Based out of Auckland, New Zealand, the band projects unconcealed and organic reverberations, while administering room for pioneering layers of new age rock-n- roll. With this being their first-time tour in the states, Ghost Wave discuss the fluidity of their sound, getting hassled by panhandlers in Venice Beach, and continuously expanding their musical grounds.

***Due to an immense amount of city noise and static during the initial interview, the recording underwent a few transcribing errors. This article has been modified and re-edited since it’s first published version. ***

How did you initially come up with your band’s name?

Matt: We don’t actually know how it came up or what’s behind it, it kind of just eventuated. It has not specific meaning, maybe just holds a vibe.We came up with one song first, and then we needed a name, and then we needed a band after that!

How was your project formed? Were you all friends prior to the formation of Ghost Wave?

Matt: Well Eammon is from Wellington,, and he was making a ton of music, so he decided to move up to Auckland.I’d seen him play a couple times, and I was interested if we could collaborate and create similar sounds to the music that I was familiar and interested in. We had about four bass players before Mike came along.

Mike: I lived in the south part of New Zealand, and I used to be friends with another bandmate of Ghost Wave. I then ended up taking his place, and started playing with these guys.I didn’t really know them before I joined, we became friends after we started creating together.

Eammon: Yeah, I didn’t know Matt at all. We were just always going to each other’s shows.

Matt: I bugged Eammon quiete a lot to be my friend, haha!

When did you first begin writing music?

Matt: I was always interested in developing my own sound, and with our band we put our vibes together, mixing different intros and creating from that base. Mike’s parents are very musical. My Dad introduced me to records at a young age

Mike: I’ve been playing bass since I was about 11. My first band was called The Weeds.

Where did you get that idea from?

It was a band that was put together by our music teacher, when I was about 12 years old. I followed through and played in bands while I attended high school, and just kept kicking at it.

Eammon: I didn’t actually play drums until I came to be a part of Ghost Wave, and started jamming with Matt at his house. I’ve been playing instruments since I was really young.My first instrument was a keyboard, I jammed on casiotone quiet a lot.

This is your first time performing in America, have any of you visited New York before?

Mike:This is our first time performing outside of New Zealand.Eammon visited the states a few times before, but this is my first time being here!

Matt:I’ve never left New Zealand, this is my first time exploring.

How long was your flight and what did you mostly jam to on the plane?

Mike: It was a pretty exhausting because we had to fly through Melvin,and then back over New Zealand, and then finally to Los Angeles. It was about a 16-hour flight. I watched a bunch of movies.

Matt: I downloaded a pile of psychedic sitar rock jams, just something to keep me interested for such a long way.

Eammon: I got into this new age meditational music. There was this thing on the plane with a video and music, that helped you go to sleep. It kept repeating, just take a deep breath, just relax! I guess sometimes being on a plane can get pretty gnarly.

Mike: They also had skycam on the tail of the plane, and I watched the flight for a lot of the time.

Judging from your recent shows and first impressions, how would you say the NYC music scene differs from that of Auckland?

Matt: Haha, well the difference is that in New York there IS a scene.

Mike: Also, when we play in New Zealand there’s not a huge communication between us and the crowd.A lot of times it’s bands playing to each other.

Eammon:It’s nice to have a different audience here, and have people be a lot more forthcoming. It’s refreshing to be here.

So how does most of the promoting for bands work back home?

Matt:We’ve always taken the responsibility for the way our band is perceived and putting ourselves outwards.There are not a whole lot of outlets. There is a couple of websites where you can put your band’s poster up.It’s a lot more limited and restricted.

Prior to your arrival to New York City, you played two shows in Los Angeles, how did your first U.S. show with The Golden Awesome turn out?

Mike: Those guys are also from New Zealand.The show felt really natural and organic, it was really fun playing together, we truly enjoyed it.

Matt: A stage is a stage, haha!

Did you have enough time to venture out around Los Angeles?

Mike: We got hassled by some guy down in Venice Beach. He just started asking me to check out his music and buy his albums. He kept telling me “Check it out man, I’ll give it to you. Just give me a donation”. And then another guy came along, and I don’t even know how I ended up talking to all of them in the first place. I guess I can’t always be a nice guy.

Can you expand on central processes of making recently released self-titled debut EP?

Matt: There’s no formula to it, we come together and it sort of just evolves naturally. We can write parts with one-piece, two-piece, three-pieces fragments and then combine everything. It’s all very unstructured, but that’s what we’re going for. We also practiced a ton in this space which used to be a huge weed plantation. There were fake walls in the building when we initially arrived there. I’m pretty sure those people got raided by the police, and then the spot was converted for practice purposes.We have a new rehearsal space now though, we usually practice a couple of times a week. It’s at a place that was prior used for brewing whiskey.

Eammon: It’s nice not to have any noise restrictions, we can play as loud as we want, which is awesome.

What is the most exciting part about playing CMJ?

Matt: Well, we’ve always wanted to come to New York, whether it was for CMJ or not, so having the chance to play our music in the city has been great. We wanted to go explore festivals like SXSW and CMJ, and we’re glad to be a part of it.We’ve done shows before, but not for such a prolonged period as with this festival. New Zealand is so small, it’s refreshing to be able to check out different music scenes and get out of the comfort zone.