Despite ultra-tight Covid safety restrictions that forced a last-minute change in shooting plans, alt-rock trio DREAMERS were able to make a companion video for new track “Still Not Dead,” which you can see below.
“Filming this video was the first thing I had done in a group since the start of Covid,” says DREAMERS lead singer Nick Wold. “It was a really good feeling for the band to be together and doing something fun after such a long period of general isolation. Being caught up in the creative process was a much-needed escape. We’ve talked about this song being a celebration of life and that theme carried over to the making of the video. No matter what kind of problems we think we have, we are all so lucky just be alive.”
The “Still Not Dead” video features west coast rapper Wes Period and American Teeth and was shot in Los Angeles with director Joe Striff. “The Covid surge led to us ditching our original concept,” says Striff. “But luckily we were still able to create a video that captures the spirit of the track. We rented a hearse and to our surprise it actually came with an empty casket – which we didn’t know was there until the morning of the shoot. When we arrived at our first location, the elevator was out of service so the band, Elijah (American Teeth) and Wes carried the casket up and down five flights of stairs. It was worth it because it made for one of the most iconic moments in the video.”
Along with the new video, DREAMERS and NOCAP have also announced an upcoming live performance, LIVEDREAM 2, from famed L.A. venue The Roxy on March 3. “We’re bringing in some very special guests and playing some new songs for the very first time,” says Wold. “We’ll be broadcasting from the historic Roxy Theatre totally live as you watch, just like the good old days.” For more information on how to watch the livestream click HERE
Billboard included “Still Not Dead” in a round-up of “10 Cool New Pop Songs To Get You Through The Week,” praising the song as an “energetic effort that will make you want to celebrate all of life’s positives” and buzzbands.la lauded the track for being “a morsel of positivity.” “For 3 minutes and 15 seconds,” they wrote, “it’s a vehicle for embracing the little things.”
Like the song, the video sees Wold, Wes Period and American Teeth’s Elijah Noll telling their separate stories about loss and life.
Wold wrote “Still Not Dead” after returning home from the Seattle funeral of a childhood friend, a victim of a drug addiction-related sucide. “I flew back to LA later that night and had a writing session with Eijah from American Teeth the next morning. Strangely, it was also the morning that Kobe Bryant died in that helicopter crash, so everyone in LA was in a weird mood. It was a hard time, a surreal sadness, and there was only one topic I could write about on a day like that.”
“My friend Nick was into Buddhism and practicing gratitude, and at the funeral, his parents played a Raffi song he liked called ‘Thanks A Lot,’ which is a children’s song expressing gratitude for the world. ‘Still Not Dead’ is our version of that, our gratitude for all the small things and the big things that we have – our thanks for getting to be alive.”
“Still Not Dead” with Wes Period and American Teeth follows DREAMERS’ recent collaborations: the dark-pop love song “True Crime” ft. DeathByRomy, and “Heat Seeker” ft. grandson which was featured in Spotify’s Rock This Presents..Best Rock Songs of 2020, as well as the band’s top ten alternative hit “Die Happy.”