Arkells – Behind the Scenes of “Leather Jacket” (video) (Premiere)

Here’s a choice quotation from PopMatters’ review of Arkells’ 2014 LP High Noon: “Arkells… exist solely on a plateau of their own, and that’s what makes them so darn special.” The group’s creativity and pop smarts are on full display both on High Noon and the music video for the album cut “Leather Jacket”. Below, you can watch a video where the group gives you an exclusive look at the making of the video for the song. Spoiler alert: there’s plenty of beer involved.

Vocalist and guitarist Max Kerman tells PopMatters, “As kids, we all really liked the ‘choose your own adventure’ books, so when [director] Amit Dabrai said we can try to do something like that in the form of the music video, we said “YES”. We’ve never done an interactive video before, and there are only a few out there, so we thought it would be an interesting experience to go down that road.

“For the party scene, we shot at my house in Hamilton. They were going to bring in a bunch of extras for the shoot, but I told Amit that my drunken friends would happily oblige. It was a great night. And needless to say, the production manager had to make multiple trips to the beer store.”

Now that you’ve got a behind the scenes look, have a gander at the final product of the “Leather Jacket” video shoot:

High Noon is out now via Dine Alone/Universal. You can purchase it through iTunes and Google Play.

Arkells will be on tour this winter. Catch them at any of the following dates below:

2/20 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Commodore

2/21 – Victoria, British Columbia @ Club Sugar

2/23 – Kamloops, British Columbia @ Cactus Jacks

2/25 – Calgary, Alberta @ Flames Central

2/26 – Edmonton, Alberta @ Union Hall

2/27 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan @ O’Brian’s Event Centre

2/28 – Winnipeg, Manitoba @ The Garrick

3/01 – Thunder Bay, Ontario @ Crocks

3/05 – Peterborough, Ontario @ The Venue

3/06 – Montreal, Quebec @ Corona Theatre

3/07 – Elora, Ontario @ Bissell Park

3/12 – London, Ontario @ London Music Hall

3/13 – Samia, Ontario @ Rustic