Go behind the scenes with Bristol punks
Liam Edwards, vocalist with Bristolian pop punks Highlives, reflects the inspiration behind his band’s new 5 track E.P Misguided Youth: “We’re often misguided through our younger years, and our lyrics reflect on that a lot, focussing on how it feels to see younger people go through the same situations, and having to make the same life choices that you once had to. It’s easy to become lost amongst the various situations that are thrown at you in life, and the decisions that you’re forced to make.” This contrast between both the hopefulness and challenges of youth greatly inform Highlives’ music, their effervescent pop punk shot through with melancholy. Following it’s recent release, the band discuss the creation of their recent music video for Better Days.
Steve: We picked the track as we decided that it is one of the strongest on the EP and has the most emotion behind it. It explores the idea that you shouldn’t let bad things get in the way of what you want to do be, if you have the determination and positive mindset you’ll get through it. The director of Better Days is Joe Clifford.
Liam: Joe is a great guy and it’s clear that he has a real passion for what he does. We filmed at three locations; SXS Events warehouse where Steve works, Ben’s house, and in Bristol city centre. I had a rough idea of how I wanted the narrative to go and the what the meaning behind it should be. I then passed these ideas over to Joe, who put together a full plan and expanded on some of the ideas, as well as adding his own.
Steve: The performance scenes in the warehouse required setting up the day before the shoot giving us enough time to shoot. The lighting was timecoded meaning that each light would be pre-programmed to the track. This meant we didn’t need a lighting op and there wouldn’t be any continuity issues with lighting, as each light would go through each programmed step at the same time, every time.
Liam: When we were filming a scene by the fountains where Daniel asks the man (Martin) for money, there was a woman sat next to him the whole time, eating a Twirl and seemed completely oblivious to Joe being less than a foot away from her with his camera. We also tried something interesting. We got Dan to actually beg for money and film at a distance, which can be seen in the scenes where he is sat up against the bus shelter. People would have likely seen the camera though. However, there was another scene which didn’t make it into the music video, where he walked around Castle Park, again actually asking people for money. We filmed this at such a distance that the people wouldn’t have known. It felt like we were doing a social experiment. Just to clarify, nobody actually gave him money, but if they were to have, it would have been returned
Steve: We’re really happy with it and it’s by far the best video and track we have released to date.
If you’re keen to find out more, watch:
Highlives ‘Better Days’ Behind The Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqm04Fod_Og
Official Video for Highlives ‘Better Days’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mox5uVfrpD8
Taken from EP ‘Misguided Youth’, released on 11th December
