Few things can be as self-destructive as reckless driving. St. Louis-based Kentucky Knife Fight should know. They’ve spent their fair share of time hitting pavement on the open road while touring to various cities across the country: Kansas City, Chicago, Fort Worth, a few various Springfields. Driving is in their blood, it has to be. It’s the nature of the beast.
Now our favorite punk-blues boozers have recently commissioned St. Louis graphic artist and animator Robert Paige to meticulously and mechanically build a music video that doesn’t idle slow. Jason Holler, the band’s vocalist and principle songwriter, knew the band agreed that animation was the route to take for their next video. And then a serendipitous run-in with Robert Paige at this year’s LouFest led to an exchange of creativity and concept that sends this beloved Bonneville darting down a never-ending road of reckless abandon, the sort of thing your mother warned you about.
Jason shares a few thoughts on the concept behind the video.
“After we finished the video for “Love the Lonely” we decided our next video would be animated. It just so happened that Robert Paige found us at LouFest (he designed the LouFest logo this year) and said he wanted to animate a video for us, so it was perfect timing.
I spoke with Robert on the phone about the song “Bad Blood” and what it was about. I told him the song is about a guy who is an addict and who is living in a Motel and wasting away. I mentioned my own experiences of the drug routine. Everyday is kind of the same thing. It’s like the movie Groundhog Day.
The car in the video is a Pontiac Bonneville, which that particular automobile makes its way into our album a couple different times. I won’t go into great detail about the significance of the car or the symbolism of the video. That is something the listener and the viewer will have to discover on their own.”
The album Jason’s referring to is Hush Hush, which features “Bad Blood” and can be purchased and listened to in it’s entirety here.
Robert Paige and Kentucky Knife Fight had a sneak preview of this video during our website (re)Launch Party earlier this month, where Robert shared a few words about his process for making the “Bad Blood” video.
“This video was comprised of 3D, film, and still photography. The band had used a real Pontiac Bonneville in a previous video so when Jason and I were writing the story it involved an idea of that car trying to get to this town. But it never really gets there, thus creating the Groundhog Day paradox. A lot of Police Squad and Blues Brothers inspired this piece. And a lot of Jason’s lyrics inspired me to animate the way that I did. There are some things he’s said to me that really fueled the passion for this one.”
This is likely not the first time you’ve seen Robert Paige’s work around town. He’s directed and animated videos for LouFest music festival. And that huge bird-like design on those towering vinyl banners at 2013′s LouFest, that’s some of Robert’s latest work. He was mentored by Kris Kuksi in college and has since designed artwork for bands ranging from St. Louis’ own Story of the Year and Tear Out the Heart to bigger touring bands like The Acacia Strain, Brand New, and Passion Pit. After Kentucky Knife Fight performed at this year’s LouFest and started talking to Robert about animation, it was only a matter of the band supplying fuel and letting Robert get behind the wheel.