When members of Easy Plan sat right down to brainstorm ideas for a music video earlier this 12 months, it was exhausting to disregard one concept that was staring proper again at them in Ukrainian filmmaker Jensen Noen.
A number of months earlier, the Montreal pop-punk band had fashioned a friendship with the L.A.-based director who shot their movies for The Antidote and Destroy My Life. As they deliberate a 3rd for the only Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare’s Over), Ukraine was slipping right into a humanitarian disaster as Russia invaded the nation.
Drummer Chuck Comeau mentioned the band ended up in conversations with Noen concerning the troubling circumstances in his homeland and methods they may draw one thing hopeful from the conflict.
“This may very well be a extremely highly effective music video,” Comeau mentioned they thought of of the undertaking, which premiered on-line Tuesday.
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“(We) began to suppose, ‘Possibly we will use the tune. Possibly we will use our platform. Possibly we will use our affect to have a constructive impression.”’
Noen agreed. And never lengthy after, the director was pouring by means of his Ukrainian forged and crew contacts within the Los Angeles space, looking for individuals who could be curious about donating their time to create a music video that may double as a UNICEF fundraiser to assist these at residence.
By late March, a forged of Ukrainian actors had joined a small crew to inform the story of a Ukrainian household — a father on the battleground, a mom serving to the wounded and exercising free speech and kids caught within the crossfire.
Easy Plan seems in scenes intercut with the storyline, performing their tune amid the ruins of a devastated area.
“The entire thought for us was actually attempting to have an antiwar message,” Comeau mentioned.
“We wished to be very aware of not telling a narrative that’s not ours and never doing it in a manner that might really feel clumsy. However I believe having Jensen on board, and with him having that non-public connection, it felt like this was the correct factor to do proper now.”
Though the shoot passed off in Los Angeles, post-production and visible results had been accomplished by a crew of Ukraine-based artists, which offered its personal logistical challenges through the conflict. For a short while, they misplaced web and had been unable to ship the completed footage again, which delayed the video’s launch by a number of days, Comeau mentioned.
Now that Wake Me Up is on-line, the band is encouraging their followers to share it far and broad.
They are saying all cash generated by YouTube views shall be donated to the UN Kids’s Fund, which is interesting for almost US$949 million to assist Ukrainian youngsters and their households.
Easy Plan say they intend to proceed supporting Ukraine within the coming months. Fifty cents from each ticket offered on the upcoming Blame Canada Tour with Sum 41 will donated to UNICEF by means of its Easy Plan Basis, which is targeted on causes supporting younger individuals.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
