The Band Explains: The Hummingbirds - 'Emma' (Video)

Liverpudlian five-piece The Hummingbirds release new single ‘Emma’, the final track from their current critically acclaimed album ‘Pieces Of You’. and we speak to the band about the ideas behind the single and their accompanying studio performance music video. 

The band are currently touring for festival season and will be bringing their killer harmonies and contemporary melodies live  to Lytham Festival (3rd August) and Liverpool Loves Festival. (6th August).

The Hummingbirds Explain:

Where was the video filmed?
The video was filmed in Whitewood studios, Liverpool. It was the studio that we recorded a lot of the demos for the album and all of our overdubs as well.

How does the video compliment the song (if at all)?
I think the original idea we had for the song would of. It followed the narrative of an unfaithful boyfriend and his girlfriend ‘Emma’ finding out. But by the time we got a budget pieced together and a storyboard it was going to cost way too much! So we came up with a Plan B, and have always loved live studio performance videos so we decided on that.

Any behind the scenes stories?
It was shot with 2 go pro cameras over 8 different takes. We were in there for about 5 hours all together and it was an absolute sweat box. By the end we were dripping!

Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
We liked the idea of using split screen shots, very 60’s stylised in black and white with thick borders. As the song moves on we wanted to add more and more shots until it climaxes on the outro with 6-8 shots at one time.

What is the message the video is trying to convey?
We tried to match the intensity of the song with the close up shots in the video, As it’s not a narrative video that runs with the theme of the lyrics we were very limited with what we could convey, But we wanted to get across a raw, studio vibe. Trying to catch some real energy visually to match the track.

Interview feature by Karla Harris