Video Premiere: ‘2009: A Teenage Oddysey’ by Valois

We’re excited to give you a first look at the new video by Ottawa glam-pop group Valois, filmed and created while following COVID-19 social distancing measures. This is truly unlike any video we have featured in the past, since bands (and the industry in general) has had to completely rethink how they approach what they’re doing.

In this case, Valois had to scrap their original plans for the video for ‘2009: A Teenage Oddysey’ and figure out how to put something out into the world while not being able to get together and film. While many artists are opting to put their releases on hold, this band decided to do something pretty special.

“‘2009: A Teenage Oddysey’ is our tribute to the golden age of 2000’s indie rock,” explains band member Charles Hoppner. “Zoe and Sabrina and I all went to high school together and this song emerged from a sense of nostalgia for that time and place – house parties, summer nights in Kanata suburbs, singalongs, jam sessions with people who are still in the music scene today. In order to evoke this time and place, we snuck as many little musical references as we could to the bands we love from the era.”

With some green screens, bedrooms, and basic video equipment, Sabrina Madore, Zoe Towne, and Charles got together virtually to film a new direction for the video. The end product is a fun DIY spectacle with band members green screen overlays, colourful visual effects, and a general sense of comradery even while apart from one another. They also spliced in some live footage from pre-COVID performances, giving us a little dose of the moments we are missing a lot right now.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget about the hairbrush microphone.

“Our plans to play a release show and tour were put on indefinite hold by the pandemic,” says Charles. “Our original plans for the music video were to take a literal approach to the song’s narrative, but seeing as we all live separately, social distancing made the process impossible. We decided to collaborate remotely, each filming our own scenes and focus on creating movement and a sense of togetherness through unconventional editing and glitchy visual effects.”

Check out the video below and be sure to follow Valois to keep up with any new material.