This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Both Lo-Fi St. Louis and Show Me Shows have excelled in making contemporary artists look and sound good in neat environments. But there seems to be room: For more live, concert-style videos. More series. More webcasting. Even more narratives, ala Kentucky Knife Fight’s collaboration with First Punch Film Production, “Love the Lonely,” in which vocalist Jason Hollers shepherds St. Louis characters through the city’s streets.
Here’s what I sent to select St. Louis music scene creatives, including videographers, editors and musicians: “My working theory is that video capabilities have never been more available, to more people and at a lesser cost than today. It seems to me that even as many bands and artists have excelled at using social media to drive their careers, we haven't (at least, on the local level) seen as much usage of music video as we could see. This applies to the classic, MTV-styled music video (a single song, with narrative), live concerts, or short-form, artist-driven documentary. Would you be open to agreeing or disagreeing with me? And if you've done a video project of late, would you sketch out what it was/they were and where I can find it?” The answers follow (some have been edited for length).
Kevin McDermott, a co-founder of the group CaveofswordS, knvmcdrmtt, believes in embracing the new. This is reflected in his group’s continual addition of video elements to their well-stocked website, as well as experiments in the live setting. His take:
“Music and video apps that cost a dollar on my phone are more powerful than anything I could have afforded a decade ago. We are a totally underground band with no budget, yet we have a personal video projection unit we strap to rafters for basement shows. Video flyers and GIF flyers are what catch any eyes anymore. They can be sent via Twitter or SMS to peoples’ phones and take off virally if you do a good/strange/funny enough job on them. And almost all of this is ‘free.’ We've already, as a culture, bought into the tech that allows this to be ubiquitous. MTV-style videos are made by the thousands and go unnoticed so you really have to do something inventive or shocking to punch through.” (Videos from the group, including “Ghryme”: http://caveofswords.com/?page_id=50)
Kat Touschner has been around the local music scene extensively in recent years, as a fan and creator of video. Her feelings are wide-ranging:
“I'm inclined to agree with you, but I don't really have an answer as to why. I think the interest is there for a lot of bands and that many have put out videos, but it's not as comprehensive as it should be. Coming from a professional angle, it's been really hard to straddle the line between working on a music video as a passion project and being compensated for the service being provided.
"It's not that the music community isn't recognizing it as a valuable tool, just that I think that bands are interested in using their limited resources for things like recording/albums/merch/touring than investing in producing a high-quality video. Of course, there are professionally produced videos with bands that have devoted resources to that and some no-budget self-made videos here and there but I know you’re referring to quantity, overall, rather than those few examples.
“I've been thinking for a while that there isn't a local hub for music video anywhere these days. I wonder if something like that would increase the amount of videos being made or what it would look like online. YouTube is so vast, there's not really a way to discover new bands on a local level. As for live performance during a show, it's not likely to get decent sound in that kind of environment. People are much more likely to watch a poorly made video with good sound over a well-made video with poor sound. And at a show, I'm more inclined to enjoy the music than try to capture it in that setting in an unofficial capacity.
“I've worked on a few music video projects recently (Lo-Fi Cherokee; and a music video for Bruiser Queen, produced by Brian McClelland). Older videos (from 2012) include on embedded above for Anna Vogelzang and a series of 'smashups' for Syna So Pro over a year ago; and, of course, a bunch of KDHX in-studio videos. Oh, this spur of the moment video I made while traveling in Akron last April. A lot of my videos are at: katcory.com.”
Brian McClelland is a triple threat musically with songwriting and/or performance roles in the bands Middle Class Fashion and Whoa Thunder; a burgeoning young label in Blip Blap Records; and work as a video producer. He’s currently editing a Bruiser Queen video and recently released one for the teen group Million Hits. He says,
“Yeah, video making right now is sort of like where designing with Photoshop was 10 years ago: people were starting to get the right software but didn't yet have the chops to use it well. Well, now 5th graders out there are out-designing the pros with Photoshop, and everyone’s feeling a little adventurous is stumbling their way (myself included!) through all of the increasingly cheaper software in search of inspiration before the 5th graders once again catch up with us. Any day now, I'm sure.
It's very surprising more bands aren't using video to promote themselves, considering that in every circle of friends there seems to be at least one frustrated filmmaker trying their hand at short films or whatever. That's starting to change. You'll see soon, I think, with bands like Kid Scientist, who have many talented video enthusiasts in their ranks, who will be focusing more on video art than performance. With the band I'm in, Middle Class Fashion, we're settling in this month to start a barrage of promotional vids for our new record. It's too powerful a tool not to use, especially right now, before everybody's making Spike Jonze-inspired music video masterpieces with only a $3.99 iPhone app.”
Bill Streeter. He’s been busy as the creator of the Lo-Fi St. Louis series, Lo-Fi Sessions, shot at the City Museum, and Lo-Fi Cherokee, an annual, day-long video experiment on that popular block. His succinct take on the local use of the medium:
“So yeah it's true that people aren't doing as many MTV style narrative videos these days. Especially locally, but also non-locally. There are a couple of reasons for this, one it's hard; yes, it’s easier than it has been in the past but crafting a well-produced narrative music video is difficult to do well. Also the trend is toward authenticity. Music videos in the ‘80s were intended to create an (often contrived) image for an act. Today people just want to see what the band is really like, so live performance videos are what people want to see. Plus it's easier and cheaper to capture an act actually performing, even if it's just an iPhone video. My most recent project is Lo-Fi Cherokee, where I assembled a team to shoot 16 live music videos in a single day in 16 locations on Cherokee Street. Found at www.lofistl.com.”
Jarred Gastreich provides the visuals for the “Show Me Shows” online video series (and has provided video and stills for the Beacon). He says,
“Music videos -- the type we would see on MTV -- are a luxury, and unless they embody innovative creativity they are rarely an investment. Exposure through viral marketing is what the musicians have to bank on. On the other hand, concert recordings and staged live ‘one-take’ videos should be seen as more valuable for the touring musician. The musicians can use these types of videos to market themselves to venues and events like weddings and block parties.
“I like to refer to this generation as the ‘curators.’ We all know about Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. It carries over into our physical lives, as well. Look at Michael Allen's fashion, go into his home and see his furniture - he's a tasteful curator. Look at my recent ‘This Is St. Louis’ post about Where's Mahach, look at their wardrobe and look at the photos of their home. It's a different style, but still great taste. What we need is a place for ‘MTV-styled music videos’ to be curated on a local level. Social media doesn't cut it. It's not worth it for the video to be viewed in a lump all at once and then never again. But if we had a site that curated and cycled through local music videos ... well, maybe then it would be an investment.
“Musicians seem to really appreciate the Show Me Shows we create with them. Musicians know how to use these videos. They put them on their websites and continue to share them to promote shows months after they're originally released. His most favorite Show Me Shows episode is embedded above.
Evan Mueller
“Oh there is totally more room - the internet is an infinite well. They are a way to get more gigs, earn fans and build a brand. It’s actually a better investment than printing CDs, IMHO.”
Asked to provide examples, Mueller sent a few selections: “Timothy Joseph (embedded). I took a super low rate on this one but it was good experience and one-take videos are way cheaper to produce. (Also he reached out to me, and once I saw the videos he had produced, I knew I could impress him.) Zach Koenig. This is about as basic as it gets, free job for my best friend https://vimeo.com/57878437","_id":"00000173-8134-d20e-a9f3-83b477240000","_type":"035d81d3-5be2-3ed2-bc8a-6da208e0d9e2"}">
Langen Neubacher recently kicked out an EP with her nascent group The Defeated County. As such, her mind’s on promoting both a new band and a new public offering.
“I would say that you are 100% right that music video technology is more available to bands than ever before, and getting videos made and promoted is easier than ever before. I think that having a ‘viral video’ as a means to success is something bands are really trying to take advantage of, because YouTube makes it so easy to share and there are many examples of national acts that have become very widely known because of their music videos. The song ‘somebody I used to know’ by Gotye comes to mind; the video caught on big time and went on to be featured on Saturday Night Live, spawning even more folks to search the video.
So in one way there is pressure have a video that can be spread like that, and there have been some great local videos made by bands like Humdrum, Middle Class Fashion, Nee and Illphonics. Plus there are video series like Bill Streeter's Lo-Fi, that help local bands get high quality videos that get played. However, there isn't any money in having a viral video. It can be great promotion, but that's all it is. So on the local level it can be really hard to come up with either the money or time to create one when, even with the resources being more available and cheaper than ever, there’s no direct return for your investment. It just doesn't always end up being a priority for bands. Our band does have a music video, created by Je Desuza," embedded above.