Wellwishers: The Video

Manny Sanchez & I had just wrapped up mixing Wellwishers and I couldn't get the tune out of my head. My surroundings slowly became the movie and Wellwishers the sound track. "Maybe we should try shooting a video for this," I thought to myself. I took the idea to the band and off we went.

Tagged by the incredibly talented Jeff "Weirdo" Jacobson

The album wasn't even an album at that point and we weren't exactly sure what would happen with the track. We didn't really have a budget to shoot a 'real' video so I approached Jefferson Waful about creating one ourselves. He jumped on the idea and the brainstorming began. We kept circling back to discussion about the iconic Bob Dylan video for Subterranean Homesick Blues (technically the opening scene of "Don't Look Back" and not a video but I digress). We both loved the simplicity of the text and its contribution to the story telling but wanted our own take on the concept. After several (many) glasses of Cabernet on the tour bus we finally arrived at the one lyric per scene concept you see here.

Thanks to the depot for letting us commandeer the marquee

This obviously left us a ton of possibilities for every lyric so we had to figure out what was doable and what was a pipe dream. Squeezing in a video shoot while balls deep in the middle of a tour isn't the easiest of tasks. So last fall on a day off in Salt Lake City, Joel, Ryan, Jefferson & I sat down and made a master list of possibilities. We charted most of the scenes in advance but in typical UM fashion, improvised several when we ran across a setting that deemed worthy. Had time or budget been less of a concern, you would have seen some outlandish lyrical representations but sometimes life is about playing the hand your dealt. All in all, we were pleased with the results given the gorilla nature of shooting.

The cake from Reno, NV (red velvet)

We shot almost all of these scenes with Flip cameras (RIP) while working our way up the west coast in the fall of 2010. It was never intended to be some slick production but rather just an extension of the UM that you've come to know and love (deeply, thoroughly, mostly, occasionally, slightly, maybe?). We snuck away before sound checks or utilized days off to grab as much footage as we could. And finally, we shot it amidst our moustache tour which just adds to the absurdity of a handful of these scenes.

On location

Stay tuned for additional scene by scene commentary from Jefferson and myself. We'll be posting further details here on the blog and plowing crop circles with hidden messages to reveal inner truths.

-Kevin Browning

And without further adieu...