Almost a year back to the date, we were the first to bring you Dude York’s “Hesitate“, off the Help Yourself-released Dehumanize, where the three piece of Andrew Hall, Peter Richards, and Claire England introduced us to the elaborate underground of the Seattle network of super-friends. And now, for the premiere of the Shaun Libman-directed video for the single, Dude York goes big, and bring a personnel-posse army of notables like Claire Nelson, Chris Schuett, Kevin Klein, Kyle Bain, Lilly Haye, Van Wolfe, Erin Birgy, and Zach Burba.
The northwest nightlife gets dominated by a meeting of Help Yourself and Couple Skate indie stars that count members FF, Mega Bog, and more in a round of after dark adventures in full DIY glamor, courtesy of Shaun Libman and Cahn Solo’s camera work. Peter Richards leads the pack by flashlight, taking over empty late night streets, storming down the sidewalks, diners, and then taking off to the shady groves. Rallying up a gang of courage, watch the group get involved with everything from experimental insect prank mischief, to confronting a mysterious green glowing essence that emanates from a car trunk. The video for a song about curing the boredom, stress, and ennui of loneliness is turned into a sci-fi Goosebumps type of thriller, where a brave group of friends stay out late, live dangerously, and behold the paranormal geist locked in the vessel of a vintage Buick. Dude York’s catchy tune about campfire confidential stories gets turned into a timeless adventure steeped in a Lovecraftian mythos twisted with a Stephen King style of modernity.
Bringing us up to date about all the latest events from Seattle, we give you our most recent interview with Andrew Hall:
Looks like you all had a good time shooting the dangerous living, risk taking, thrill making, Shaun Libman video. What was that experience like, and what is the story behind that ghastly green glow beneath the car’s hood?
Hall: It was a music video shoot, so mostly we stood around in the late spring weather waiting to do things, but I got to see some parts of this lovely state I’d never seen before and I’m grateful for that. The green glow is a reference to the first scene in Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984) where the highway policeman is vaporized by the creepy space car’s trunk and all that’s left are his smoking boots. Shaun was on a punk inflected 80’s trip, apparently enough for a music video concept to take shape.
This video is like a Seattle / Couple Skate, FF, Mega Bog, etc, mega-clique with cameos from, Kyle Bain, Claire Nelson, Van Wolfe, Kevin Klein, Erin Birgy, Lilly Haye, Chris Schuett and Zach Burba. How do you get this greatness hanging out in one place?
The easiest way to get everyone gathered in one place is to simultaneously ask to borrow all of their cars and offer them dinner.
With all these notables, can we expect another indie supergroup-ish phenomenon, like your labelmates Childbirth (whom we absolutely love)?
They happen all the time, but you have to be here. In fact, Julia from Chastity Belt, Bree from Tacocat, and Robin Edwards, who performs as Lisa Prank, just played a show this week as Gutless. They only play songs about I Saw You ads. Claire is also in a supergroup/Weezer obscurities tribute band with Nathan from So Pitted and our friend David Price called Goat Reward.
So it’s been almost a year since our last conversation, what is the latest from the Dude York camp?
We’re hard at work for you.
When can we expect a follow-up to Dehumanize and what can we expect from a follow up to Dehumanize?
80N7 will be releasing a demo of a new song, “Something”, on the All-American Edition comp out on New Year’s Day. As far as expectations go, we own about twice as many pedals now and the new songs explore popular themes such perennial illness, anxiety, and leaving.
2015 game plan for Dude York?
Finishing this new record, ideally coming back down the coast in February, filling in the rest of our calendar from there.
The 2014/2015 Dude York almanac on the state of Seattle indie everything?
The music is good, but it’s grim up North. Be on the lookout for astounding albums from So Pitted and Briana Marela, among many others, next year. We’d also like to say a tearful goodbye to Wishbeard and Peeping Tomboys who are both calling it quits pretty soon and were two excellent Seattle bands.
Dude York’s Dehumanize is available now from Help Yourself Records.
