Directed by Ben from Low Ten Studios, the debut music video from Greg Bennick‘s xBYSTANDERx (read our recent interview HERE) was recorded at the band’s tiny rehearsal room in Chicago and already had its premiere at NoEcho, but today we’re recalling the wild mosh party gig along with the band’s commentary on the video shoot. Check it out below and be sure to get your pre-order via Safe Inside Records HERE.
Videos for a hardcore band can be pretty tricky. Many of them seem like they’re showcasing just how “hard” a band is, or they are so over conceptualized you have no clue what’s actually happening. As a band, Bystander has one thing we adhere to whether it’s playing a show, practicing, or writing songs…and that is to have fun. So we knew we wanted a video that conveyed this feeling. I believe that’s what we ended up with.
We invited 20 of our friends to pack into our small practice space in downtown Chicago and we had an absolute blast! Throughout the video you can see shots of my son Jaxon who is 9 years old and loves coming to hardcore shows too. He was thrilled to get a chance to do a little crowd surfing in the beginning. Later in the video you periodically see shots of each band member also in the crowd singing along which creates a pretty hilarious dichotomy between audience and band.
The video ends with us walking out of the practice space and shutting off the lights, yet Jaxon is still sitting there as we walk out. This has caused some people to ask us if the show was really happening or if it maybe was a dream of Jaxon’s? We’ll let each person decide what they think it is but the reaction from everyone giving us feedback that they can feel the fun that was had while making the video and that they wish they could have been there to participate.
We want to send a huge thank you to Ben David and Low Ten Studios for filming this and of course to Safe Inside Records for putting out the record which was just released this week.
