New Video: Every Time I Try by Bad Volunteers

One of Ottawa’s newest rock bands, Bad Volunteers, just released a video for their latest single “Every Time I Try,” which they will officially launch at the single release party this Saturday June 22nd at Bar Robo.

The band formed as many do—three longtime friends who like to jam loudly and figured others may like to hear what they have to play. They officially formed in October of 2018 and have been performing wherever possible live since January of this year. Chris Ferrante had formally put all his time into local ska band Suits n Toques, but this project stemmed a bit from songs that he had been writing that didn’t fit their ska-punk style. “The chemistry has been great so far and we’re super excited to release this song,” says Ferrante.

Bad Volunteers are nothing like his ska-punk roots. “Every Time I Try” is a straight forward rock song delivered by the three-piece. The track was recorded and mixed by Dean Watson and Philip Bova took care of the mastering work, making it a very local affair.

The video is very interesting in its simplicity. It features opening handwritten text for the title, then one after another the band member’s gif-like demonized faces almost reminiscent of South Park appear over a background that looks like static from old box TVs. The heads constantly move around a little making you think they will do something else or more, or even possibly sync with the song, but nope. They just kind of float there no matter how hard you try.

Ferrante explained that “We wanted something quirky and different that we could do on a relatively low budget… Our bassist Andrew was really hot on this artist he found through Reddit (Don Porfirio – from Mexico) that does all sorts of unique animations, and pitched us an idea for a “gif” style video.” Watch the video below and I think we can all agree they achieved their goal.

Go see Bad Volunteers perform this song and more live this Saturday, June 22nd at Bar Robo, supported by Siberian Breaks (details here). I hear that they have rigged up “Every Time I Try” on guitar hero so that fans can play it at the show between acts. Ferrante teased “Lets just say there may be some prizes for high scores…” Now that is pretty darn cool.