The Band Explains: Ramonda Hammer - 'Goddamn Idiot' (Video)

Who:   Ramonda Hammer are a grunge pop four-piece based in LA.  They are; Devin Davis (vocals, guitar) Justin Geter, (lead guitarist) Andy Hengl (bass) and Danny Louangxay (drums).

About The Track:  'Goddamn Idiot' is the first single taken from Ramonda Hammer's upcoming album, 'Whatever That Means, due out 29th April.
The track calls upon 90s alternative rock influences.  It is an angsty offering, where guitar hooks drenched in reverb support raw female-led vocals.

 Devin Davis Explains:

Who produced the video? Where was it filmed?
I produced the video with some help from our director Ariel Gardner and his girlfriend Ester. We filmed the green screen stuff and surveillance footage at my house. Then we headed to Danny's work, which is a weird place - it's one building that has inside of it a laundromat, Starbucks, Subway, Metro PCS, and a bunch of really old arcade games. Haha when we went to film there at 9pm on a Sunday night, there were a bunch of people still doing their laundry, but because it's LA, it's like nothing really phases people when they see a camera crew and ridiculous costumes.

How does the video compliment the song? (If at all)
I'd say the video complements the song pretty well actually, however, it shows the more lighthearted side of what the lyrics mean. I started writing the lyrics about someone who was too afraid to act on something. He needed to stop being a 'goddamn idiot' and do the right thing, so my song was going to be a funny way of telling him what was up. As I finished the song, however, it became more than just about that person, and was addressing the more serious issues in the world that are the result of people being idiots. I didn't want the video to be too political, though, since it's pretty much Ramonda Hammer's introduction to the world and I wanted to really show the band's personality and that we don't take ourselves too seriously. Once we came up with the Cheaters spoof, it was obvious that that's what it needed to be, especially because of our band name too. (The band are named after a character who appeared on the American reality TV show Cheaters!).

3. Any behind the scenes stories?
It was a really short shoot. We got everything so organized ahead of time that we were filming for about six hours and that was it! In that short time there weren't too many moments I can think of that stood out; pretty much everything was hilarious. Danny was the perfect sleazy talk show host and he like wouldn't break character the whole time which was weird and actually started to get annoying haha. Dressing Andy up like a girl was my favorite part. We came out of my room and everyone was like, "it's good, but......HE NEEDS BOOBS", so I stuffed some socks in the bra and it definitely made the costume.

Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
I mean it's pretty self explanatory for anyone who's seen or heard of "Cheaters" or any similar show. We wanted to go through the motions of an entire episode to show all of the absurd things that happen - emotional insanity of a scorned lover, fights being broken up by a nerdy talk show host and his bouncers, some sort of trashy twist ending - all the juicy stuff that people hate to love to watch! The people who are in those types of shows are goddamn idiots and those who watch are goddamn idiots and we're all guilty of it sometimes and so we're all just a bunch of goddamn idiots I guess. The goal is to be aware of it and maybe reel it in a bit and learn from our mistakes so we can live a more peaceful life.

What is the message the video is trying to convey?

Oh man, I think I've already kind of addressed that in the previous answers. I guess the last thing I'll say is that the video is trying to convey the complexity of human behavior. The fact that our songs are kind of sad and angry and then in the video you see us being comedians is kind of cool and says a lot about people. No one is one dimensional. We all get angry and happy and sad and excited, and fucking crazy, but not all the time. Sometimes we wish we were a different way but we can't really take things back, we can just apologize, accept, and move on. Mostly you just have to reconcile with yourself, whatever that means to you. And I just want to contribute to helping people be a little more  self-aware.