The Band Explains: Sleep State - 'Making Up The Rules' (Video)
As Sleep State unveil their new music video for their highly anticipated song 'Making Up The Rules', lead vocalist Troy Ritchie speaks to us about all things behind the scenes involved in the making of the video directed and animated by the very talented Adam Villa Señor.
Sleep State Explains:
Where was the video filmed?
The video was filmed at Echo Park in Los Angeles, California.
How does the video complement the song (if at all)?
The video definitely complements the song. The animation goes right with the theme of this relationship feeling like a mind game. As I (Troy) navigate through a short strip of Echo Park, my world splits between a game and reality.
Any behind the scenes stories?
There are quite a few lol-worthy stories that happened. First off, it rained at the time we were originally supposed to start shooting so all our friends, our director, and the band migrated to the house where Michael (keyboard player) lives. One of Michael's roommates at the time started getting really irritated that people were using her and our old bass player's bathroom. In retrospect, its pretty hilarious, but she ended up putting a 3x5 card on the door that barely legibly said "NOT A PUBLIC RESTROOM." The day was long and a lot of us were exhausted and were going in and out of the house to grab props and stuff. She ended up yelling "Can't you read?" to one of our friends that used the bathroom and we were like "Woah, take it easy".
At the park, there were three white geese that were terrorizing everyone. They were squawking up a storm and one guy got too close and they chased him for like 10 feet! Also, one stretch of the music video had a bunch of aggressive smaller geese with a bunch of goose poo scattered around them- I thought I was going to get attacked. 10+ Geese Vs. Me, I wouldn't have stood a chance haha
We were thinking of interesting ways to wrap up the video after I defeat the dragon. Our director and his camera man thought they struck gold when they told me to just swim away in the lake. I almost did it, our director kept saying "Film is Foreva!" to try to motivate me haha. Our two girl friends talked me out of it telling me Police have found dead bodies in the lake and people have fallen in and gotten sick from it- it was a tough call haha.
One of the best parts happened on a take that could've been the final one. There were multiple families that were walking through the park and taking pictures of their daughters for their Quinceañeras. Of course, during a perfect take there was a family hanging out by the bench where I do the guitar solo dragon fight. During the chorus, our camera man says "Dude, dance with her" so I started twirling around a 15 year old in a fancy dress and doing funny dance moves and then blew kisses to her once I had to move to my next mark haha. They were super cool about it and asked for our info so they could see if we used the take. Definitely reenergized the very long day and made all our friends crack up.
Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
When we sat down at Loft Cafe to brainstorm with our director, we went into it with the idea that we wanted subtle animation that complemented the story of the song. The main theme of the video is shaped around board games, video games, and making up the rules. We wanted to cleverly fit in a lot of game based imagery, whether it be chess pieces or making it look like I was in Super Mario 64 walking on platforms surrounded by lava. Also, we wanted to put in a lot of opposite imagery to go along with the idea that this girl is changing her mind and confusing mine. The video goes from Lava to snow, getting struck by lightning to dancing around a happy cartoon, rain to rainbows, etc.
What is the message the video is trying to convey?
This video is just a play off of the words to the song. It's a fun, entertaining and imaginative portrayal of what I went through with this girl.
Interview feature by Karla Harris