Plaid is the new black, pork belly is the new bacon, and the speakeasy is the new gastropub, but above everything else…. hugging is the new handshake – everybody’s doing it! Enter Everybody’s Hugging, a multimedia collective comprised of Casey Chalmers, Brett Marshall, Eric Stemen, and Stephen Kertis – the sum of which make up Kertis Creative, a Louisville-based video production company. For the last few months, the folks at Kertis Creative have been pairing local and regional musicians with rather dissident, if not flat-out volatile environments, to be captured on film, all of which distinctly manage to coalesce in their own unique way. These live, unrehearsed, single-take videos serve as time capsules documenting the intimacy garnered by balancing each encounter with the unknown, both by the musicians and the videographers.
On the suggestion of friend Peter Berkowitz, the name Everybody’s Hugging is an obscure reference to a Simpsons quote delivered by the animated sitcom’s resident oddball, Ralph Wiggum, representing the concept that Kertis is hoping to convey; one that is light, whimsical, and indiscriminate, much like the videos and settings themselves. Conventional wisdom would hold that a dive bar, carwash, backyard house party, corn maze, weightlifting gym, and rolling swimming pool have nary a thing in common; nonetheless, each of the aforementioned veritably act as the multifarious backdrops for this captivating and ambitious undertaking. These audio-visual artifacts, which Kertis refers to as “episodes,” act independently in their own creative right, all while remaining part of the cohesive enterprise that will ultimately be broken down into “seasons.” Whereas the first season of Everybody’s Hugging was comprised of six episodes, season two hopes to encompass a total of ten. To Kertis, these are much more than music videos; each episode “represents a collaborative project with intent,” ones that are not so much narrative based as they are conceptually constructed.
So in a world where the ‘M’ in MTV no longer symbolizes music and now represents all things miscellaneous; and congruently, the ‘V’ in VH1 now epitomizes the sheer variety in the station’s current programming, why would an endeavor such as Everybody’s Hugging even so much as want to exist, let alone, what mission could it possibly serve the artists and community they showcase? Well, before one engages in a discourse over the relevance of music videos in today’s popular culture, it’s only fair to point out that eight out of the top ten most-viewed videos on YouTube are that of the musical variety, with the video in the number one slot having over two-thirds of a billion views (yes, you read that correctly), and climbing every day. In recent years, we’ve also seen the rise in popularity of such web-only outlets, La Blogotheque and Black Cab Sessions, both of which are part of an emerging new trend of “take-away shows,” pairing musicians with unique settings; whether it be a public park, the back of a black cab in London, or the alley behind the club where the artist will be performing a “proper” show later on that night. While fans of such videos, Kertis and his crew strive to make the settings in their work even more dynamic; adding movement, discord, and outside personalities to an already effervescent landscape. As for the paradigm shift in how we as consumers of music and music videos now access the content of these creations, Kertis exerts, “I don’t think there’s anything less relevant about the size of the screen that you see stuff on… I don’t think that being on a 42” flat screen in your home is more important than being viewed on an iPhone screen. That’s for sure.” He goes on, “If we’re talking about getting viewers, I don’t think that the mode or medium is necessarily indicative of the importance.”
But still, what do the artists and the musical communities they represent stand to benefit from more than simply enjoying a well-curated selection of professionally peculiar videos? Kertis expresses that “if we look at musicians as artists, then these [episodes] are important because this is the other side of the art. If they don’t come to your small little town, if they don’t come to play venues, which are decreasing, if you’re too young to see your new favorite band when they do come to your town, you now have immediate access to these bands at any given time of the day. Additionally,” Kertis suggests, “we, as the viewers and listeners of these music videos, are then able to share them; whether it be through email, social media, etc.” Kertis adds, “Music videos are perpetually important for an artist because it is an expression and an evolution of what they are doing. From my perspective, music videos are important because rarely are musicians solely musicians and not artistic in any other ways.” With that being said we can infer that the music video, as a genre, is one of the most artistic modes of communication available to these artists. The bands don’t have to commit to any rules, continuity, or narrative throughout the process, as they are essentially given free reign to express themselves and their music as they see fit. As for the benefit the bands may potentially garner from involving themselves in this creative process, Kertis candidly remarks, “I hope it means more people get pictures and videos; I hope it means that some of those people [bands] that get pictures and videos get to play out of town more often because a promoter at a club out of state sees what a live performance could look like and says, ‘I’ll give them a shot;’ I hope that it inspires the bands to see themselves in a new way that’s maybe more professional than where they thought they were, and inspires them to create more music.”
In addition to their videography, Everybody’s Hugging has also branched out to include standard photography as another medium of choice. In the last few months, they’ve attended and documented, through a series of both black and white and color photographs, such notable shows and events as the avant-garde, noise, experimental, and punk music festival Cropped Out; an evening with The Deloreans, playing the entirety of Pulp Ficton’s soundtrack while dressed as characters from the film; and most recently, chronicling the debut performance by Old Baby, a supergroup of sorts, made up of familiar musicians and personalities from around town, already a critic’s favorite for 2012 in the realm of Louisville music. The year ahead for Kertis and his team is ostensibly abundant with projects and ripe with a quiver of new challenges they’ll most certainly face along the way. Included in the tentative lineup for Season Two of Everybody’s Hugging are such celebrated musical dignitaries as Wax Fang, Ultra Pulverize, Supertruck, and Gangly Youth to name a few. Kertis is hoping to diversify the scope of the project to incorporate such assorted genres as hip-hop, experimental, and metal, among others. When asked about how he and the others go about deciding on which artists to feature, Kertis divulges, “genre aside, we’re looking to work with those that are doing things authentically their own, and interesting.” With a pending project slated to feature one of the aforementioned bands clad in full electro-rock regalia, playing unannounced to an unsuspecting kindergarten class, Everybody’s Hugging is sure to achieve all things authentically interesting.
–Sean Bailey
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