The Town Heroes have released “Poets,” their second single from their upcoming album, Everything (will be fine when we get to where we think we’re going). Of course, in the grand tradition of the internet, they’ve given it the treatment it deserves – by which we mean there’s a slow motion video of food being thrown at singer Mike Ryan. The real artistry is in WHAT is being thrown: nachos, silly string, ice cream, unicorns…. It’s a veritable deconstructed salad of a five year old’s deconstructed birthday party. But what could it all mean?!
The Town Heroes’ Mike Ryan, that impenetrable and enigmatic burlap sack of secrecy offers some insight into how the video was put together, but not much why.
Done in one shot, the video was done at double the speed with Ryan singing along in double-time.
“So it happened incredibly fast in real-time. We did it three times, I had to throw away each outfit each time. I had cornmeal stuck in my hair for weeks after, swallowed a fair bit of string. It was done very systematically with 8 ‘throwers’ each following a set in stone pattern of colours and items to toss.”
“Director Matt Corkum was like the quarterback, calling out what was to come. With it being shot at double the speed, it happened very, very fast. We rehearsed it probably thirty times, with the throwers mock throwing their stuff. We knew we had to get it right in one take, so it had to happen the right way. I few times I get stuff in my mouth and it messes up my singing, but… that adds a little to it I think.”
And because art is nothing without suffering and authenticity, you can see the balloons hitting Ryan pretty hard, though perhaps not hard enough. Several land a solid thwack, but fail to burst.
“We did a test run a few weeks before and I got hit with a three balloons that didn’t break. I had a headache for about two weeks. Before then I didn’t know that there was a difference between regular balloons and water balloons,” explains Ryan. “Water ones break when you’re hit. Regular balloons just feel like a punch. It was a good learning experience.”
The band explain that, lyrically, “Poets” is about how to face something on your own when things fall apart. Which seems pretty subjective, depending how you feel about having a unicorn tossed at you, but more than that, the band tote the song as Everything…’s catchiest track.
Full of drum and bass, it’s one they’ve been eager to record for a while. In their former manifestation as a duo it just wasn’t something that could pull off live.
“The song was written a few years ago,” says Ryan, “while we were a duo. We couldn’t pull off that drivey bass part with just the two of us. Part of the reason for expanding was to be able to play songs like this, ones that we had in the can.”
It will be nice to see what else The Town Heroes can pull off as a four-piece. Even if we’re left to decipher the cryptic the occasional meaning of silly string and tossed nachos on our lonesomes.
Everything (will be fine when we get to where we think we’re going) is currently available for pre-order as of today for . The album is set for release on August 10th, 2018.