Today marks two months since we released the official music video to our song, Sleep. We released the song in February. Broke ground on the video in April. Released it in September. And now, it has been watched over 8,000 times according to our algorithmic overlords over at GoogleTube.
If somehow you haven't seen it yet, why don't you do us a favor and fix that will ya?
We thought it might be fun to dedicate this issue of the Gazette to the making of this music video. Who doesn’t love behind the scenes content? We’ll discuss some of the quirks of shooting, how we got into character, and, uh, what the hell those cards said exactly… Let’s dive on in and talk about how this music video got made.
Where did the concept come from?
We’ve always described this song as “film noir with fangs.” The song itself is all about anxiety and the sleepless nights that accompany it. To this end, we play with textures a lot: the verses have a "wetness" that feels like you’re slipping in and out of a dream; the bridge then is a moment when you’ve sort of given up and everything is fading into that twilight zone between panic and unconsciousness. The story of the song follows one's train of thought when an idea is just out of reach.
We’ve always described this song as “film noir with fangs.”
We decided to lean into the film noir element fairly literally. And that is how you end up with a detective, naturally (played by Connor Moore). A detective must therefore be on the case, running down a mystery. So what case is he solving? A whodunnit murder engulfed by corruption that goes all the way to the top? A wrestling match with his own inner demons? Finding a word that rhymes with sleep?1 Ultimately, we leave that piece of the puzzle in the eye of the viewer. A mystery about a mystery. A meta-stery, if you will.
Who are these characters in the video?
Our director, Harry Kaufman, sought to enrich the mystery storyline by having our detective encounter a random cavalcade of characters along the way. This would also allow us to insert the band into the story. Harry then began his research. And by research, we mean interviews. And by interviews, we mean interrogations.
Over the course of several beers, Harry asked each member of the band a series of questions in order to create an archetype he could have each of us play. In the end, he landed on a version of the characters you see in the final product:
Evin as a sk8rboi
Sam as a mixologist (in old timey garb, in keeping with our film noir theme)
Will as a rambunctious mobster goon
Asa as a mafia boss of some kind that got lost in Bob Dylan’s wardrobe sometime around the Rolling Thunder Revue (?)
And so I think it’s pretty clear how all of these characters come together and factor into our meta-stery, wouldn’t you say? Next question!
What in the world are those squiggly things?
Ah, yes. Our dear squiggles. Like any good detective mystery, we wanted to leave our snoop clues to lead him on. But we also wanted to allow our audience to test their sleuthing meddle alongside him. We wanted something like one of our most beloved mystery writers is Edgar Allen Poe, a man who famously employed cryptography in stories like The Gold Bug.
Enter squiggles.
Believe it or not, the cards that our detective finds along the way actually do mean something! Each card spells out the next location or the next piece of the puzzle. In order, the cards say:
Marian’s
Will
Harry’s
Sleep
How? Pull up the keyboard on your phone. Imagine that to text you must keep your finger held down on the keyboard. And now imagine a line connecting the traces your finger makes as you move from letter to letter. Try out the words above for yourself. Don’t worry, we’ll wait. Look familiar?
After Evin hands off the first card (“Marian’s”), we head to a bar. The name of that bar is—you guessed it—Marian’s.2
After Sam hands off the second card (“Will”), we snap to a shot of Will playing bass and then also introduce his character.
Will ultimately hands off a card that says “Harry’s” which was the locale for shooting the ticking bomb scenes between Connor and Asa.
And in the final shot, our detective holds a card that says “Sleep” that was presumably given to him by Asa’s character. And he’s finally asleep, too! Mind. Blown.
So there you have it! The answers to your burning questions about our music video! It was an absolute joy for us to make and we’re thrilled with how much love you’ve all shown it. As always, a huge thank you to our crew for helping create this thing: Harry Kaufman (director), Destin Hernandez (DP), Hunter Stark (AC).
In a coming post, I will walk through the unseemly part of making a music video: promoting, marketing, and whether any of it bears fruit (warning: there will be analytics. And cynicism).
‘Til next Wednesday. May all your geese be berries and your berries be geese.
Love,
Asa
Since we released this song, a bunch of people have been quick to note: “Asa, I can think of several words that rhyme with sleep! Sheep! Beep! Barkeep! The list goes on! Look at how smart I am!” And I just want to assure you all that I find your rhyming capabilities enviable. A gold star for the lot of ya…
Marian’s is an incredible bar in Bedstuy. If you’ve never been, go. Not only is it spacious, filled with cool ambiance and terrific beer, but it also has a backroom where they frequently host jazz jams! Beyond all that, they are wonderful people who opened their space up to us to shoot a ridiculous music video all night. We can’t thank them enough <3