The Band Explains: Bloods - 'I Hate It'

MC of indie Rock outfit Bloods speaks to us about the band’s tongue-in-cheek music video for, ‘I Hate It’ , which is a parody of Youtube videos and shares the message not to take life too seriously.

Where was the video filmed?
It was shot over a bunch of different locations but mainly in and around Mikey’s apartment and my bathroom. We shot all the full band park shots at a place called Dolls Point in Sydney.

How does the video connect with the song?
I wanted to make something fun and light for the clip and came up with this concept. I guess it connects to the song in that the song is a happy sounding song that is actually pretty sad. The internet has this ability to mask people’s sadness through a perfect, virtual façade and I guess that is a very similar juxtaposition.

Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
Shooting the clip was really fun, particularly the ‘Blape Nation’ shots. There was an unused scene of the guys trying to lift me into a tree, but my body got stuck right in the middle and couldn’t get up. We also didn’t have a vape and I found a 4 year old packet of cigarettes in a bag that we used to make the vape smoke, which is kind of funny and ridiculous when you think about it.

Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?
We basically culled the list of clips we used down to our favourite youtube video styles. The band shots were particularly funny because there was a period of time in the 00s where so many bands had clips shot in the forest. The whole video is very tongue in cheek.

Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
The message is probably not to take anything too seriously and just have fun and tune out every now and then. We didn’t realise when we came up with the idea that it would become so relevant to our current realities of self-isolation and virtual lives. Now more than ever, people are logging on, craving to connect and watch people do everyday things so they can distract themselves.

Interview by Karla Harris

‘I Hate It’ is taken from Bloods upcoming EP ‘Seattle’ out May 15 via Share It Music which is available for Pre-order, here.