Said the Whale Explain Their Lofty Video Ambitions, Stream New Album on Exclaim.ca

BY Ian GormelyPublished Feb 27, 2012

As we previously reported, Vancouver indie pop crew Said the Whale are celebrating the release of their new album Little Mountain, which is currently streaming here on Exclaim.ca, by making music videos for each of the record's 15 tracks.

"Over the past couple years, YouTube has become a place people go if they want to immediately hear a song," singer-guitarist Tyler Bancroft tells Exclaim! "Generally what they're seeing is a pixelated album cover with some comic sans lyrics scrolling across the screen that's put up by a fan who wants to see his favourite band on YouTube. This way we can control the content ourselves and maybe make a cool music video for each song, something that people can watch when they go to YouTube to listen to our music for free."

To make this project a reality, the band enlisted Vancouver production company Amazing Factory for all of the Little Mountain clips. "Over the past two years they've made a name for themselves in Vancouver as the go-to music video guys," he says. "These guys just do insane work. Any idea you have, it feels like they can do it."

While Bancroft admits that producing 15 music videos is financially difficult, the band were able to pour some of the money they won in 2010's PEAK Performance Project into the initiative.

The videos are being released almost in the same order as they appear on the album with a couple being held back due to time constraints surrounding post-production. To check out some of the video project's initial results, you can watch clips for the album tracks "Big Sky, MT" and "We Are 1980."

It's a lot of work, says Bancroft, but it's also a luxury: "Every band wishes they could do a video for every song."

Little Mountain is due out on March 6 through Hidden Pony. To listen to the album in full, simply click here. And for a list of Said the Whale's upcoming tour dates, head here.

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