New Video: Harea Band – Drop and Dance
Harea Band are back with a brand new video for the single “Drop and Dance” off their upcoming EP All The Hits. I say they’re back, but the reality is they never really went away. The five-piece band, lead by principal songwriter Alex Harea, was formed in 2012 and brought together a diverse array of talented individuals with varied musical backgrounds.
This collective takes elements of pop, soul, folk, funk, hip hop, jazz, blues and world music, and effectively fuses them into uplifting, melodic, and downright funky-ass tunes. Since their formation, they’ve been continuously active and have been invited to play notable shows at The Black Sheep Inn, Ottawa Jazz Festival, CityFolk Festival, and other venues across Ontario. Needless to say, this is one hard-working group of musicians – and it shows.
This style can be heard nowhere better than their 2014 EP Hip Hip Harea, an 5-track album that doesn’t try to break any musical boundaries, but succeeds in providing a fun listening experience front-to-back and translates into intoxicating live energy on stage.
Speaking of intoxicating, let’s talk about their new video for a minute. “Drop and Dance” is a step in another direction for Harea Band as they’ve taken their uplifting, soulful sound and injected a little more funk and disco-inspired aspects into the track. Although the whole album isn’t available yet, this probably signifies an evolution of a band that wants to keep people smiling and dancing, but with new sounds and rhythms over time.
The video’s subject is a young, overworked office dweller that experiences the mundane motions of the 9-to-5 life. This is something a lot of people in Ottawa can probably identify with, but our friend in the video takes it… well, to the extreme.
Filmed at Live On Elgin!, the video follows the subject as he parties to oblivion, refusing to let the boring desk job define his life. However, we can also see how this over-the-top lifestyle isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be either – he experiences some unnecessary violence, performs some not-so-impressive dance moves, and probably sets himself up for a pretty mean hangover the next day.
All The Hits will be released April 28th at KM Theatre (Carleton University campus) starting at 7pm. It’s an all ages show, and $10 at the door (or PWYC if you’re a student), so be sure to head on over and see what the band has in store. Enjoy the video for “Drop and Dance” below.