Our birthday celebration continues

Another bonus video for your digestion…

OHTIS was one of those bands that suckerpunched me and most of my friends when we first heard them. I still have never heard more honest lyrics in my entire life. Upon being introduced to OHTIS, I realized right away that Single Barrel Detroit couldn’t just be about filming Detroit artists. We had to make exceptions.

If you know anything about the band and what Sam Swinson often sung about, you’ll realize why we filmed this in an abandoned church. I had “visited” the church a couple days prior to us filming and, fuck, talk about a scary experience. Nothing is more creepy than exploring an old abandoned church (alone), and on top of that, there was so much stuff left there that didn’t make sense. It really was a disorienting experience. Old pictures and computers and children’s toys and Bibles, falling church pipes and a vacant pulpit. Everything was staring at me. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

The issue was that the day of the shoot it was raining, inside the building as well as out. That would have been cool if not for the fact that it was extremely dark as a result. Most of what we had planned to capture was impossible to film.

This video just barely got scrapped, partially because it was so dark, and also because there was a bit of interference on the microphones. However, watching it now and looking back I think it’s beautiful. Just Sam and Adam, as it often was. And it’s just like Sam to critique his performance with a “Meh” right after he’s managed to break your heart yet again.

p.s. My favorite part is seeing Sam’s breathe as he sings. Another really cold day.