The Unstoppable Sweet Baby Jesus And Their New Music Video
By Samantha Weisenthal, Contributor
Meet Sweet Baby Jesus
Falling into an entranced state at a Sweet Baby Jesus show was a regular occurrence in the Bushwick indie scene prior to the Covid-19 epidemic. The band's high-energy performances coupled with their magically kaleidoscopic rock sensibility put listeners into a dizzy stupor song after song. The six-piece band is releasing a music video for their song "Restless Angel" directed by Jean Coleman with choreography by Hannah Mitchell and costumes by Ruth Kace. I was able to speak with Max (lead singer), Charlie (bassist), and Jean about the making of the video this past winter. We discussed everything ranging from inspiration for the magical aesthetics the band utilizes, the process of making the video with a plethora of collaborators, and how the three see the Bushick music scene re-emerging post-pandemic.
How did you all meet?
Charlie: Me and Max went to high school together on the lower east side.
Max: Way back in 2007 or 2008.
Charlie: A lot of the people in our band have known each other for even longer than that, we’re mostly all from Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Jean: I know Max through my brother (Dan) who is in Max and Jordan’s other band (Suspect), I met everyone through him.
When you say that people have known eachother since before highschool, is it a middle school thing?
Charlie: Me and Sammy Weissberg the guitarist were best friends in first grade. Our drummer Jordan, I went to middle and highschool with Max. Max and Paco, our guitarist, were roommates in college at Bard. Our saxophonist Carolyn is a homie of other homies. Everyone else has known each other for a very long time.
Jean, how did you get in touch with everyone to make the video?
Jean: Max hit me up first, he had a really specific idea of what he wanted to do. We were talking about it for a while - going through different incarnations logistically. That was a good starting place to figure out what my visual take on it would be because Max really had a clear idea of the narrative. It’s nice when a band really knows what they want and how they want to be presented.
What was the inspiration from the concept of the video?
Max: I have always been into fantasy imagery because there is so much that goes on in our daily life that’s make believe, that's in our heads. When you are dressed up as medieval characters, it really hammers that idea home. I wanted to do something that played with the idea of magic, fantasy, illusions, and spells - a different world that exists from the tangible. It started to take on the idea that being in a band in and of itself can be like a fantasy, in a way you are trapped and stuck in it. That idea informed the choreography and the visuals.
A lot of the language of the band, the names of the songs and the lyrics, and even your name, is based around Christianity. In contrast, a lot of the imagery you utilize is more wizard and magic-based. How do you see those two things interacting, and where is the distinction for you.
Max: There’s definitely a blurry line. I went to Catholic school as a kid and was raised Christian Catholic. At some point, I figured out I have my own spirituality that doesn’t fit into that box. I think the imagery is useful as an allegory for things that happen in relationships and in our own heads - how we make up things and ultimately how we get in touch with what’s really going on.
The song discusses restlessness, and there’s a lot of imagery of being trapped, following people and being a part of a larger pack. Where do you see that falling into what you just said?
Max: I thought I was writing the song about a relationship - a classic love scenario. But when I’m writing a love song, I’m really just projecting, it’s really just about myself. This song is about having an idea of where you want to be, and things might even seem like they are really good and on track to get there but there’s still a feeling of guilt and anxiety. It’s about being stuck in this dynamic where you know there’s this perfect fantasy where everything’s great, but you’re not there yet - you have to navigate this imperfect space when in reality you just want... to chill. And maybe there is really only that imperfect space. The perfect space is the illusion, the spell.
Jean, when Max was explaining those concepts to you, what was your process like to transfer all of those ideas onto the screen.
Jean: The point of a music video for me is to make you more excited to listen to the song. It was about distilling the imagery and then coming up with sequences that would build up the energy - how would I put this scene together and how did I see this wizard being sucked into the magic ball. There were so many artists' minds who were coming together - Ruth Kace (ig: ruthpaste ) who made the costumes and Hannah Mitchell (ig: _razmus) who did the choreography were amazing.
In terms of the dance sequences, I love seeing and working with non-dancer dancers, but it can be a challenge to make sequences where the choreography hits at the right moments. Everyone was really amazing with the dance moves. I don’t know how many times you rehearsed but you were really good.
Charlie, what was that like for you?
Charlie: It was really difficult, but Jean is brilliant.
Jean: It was funny because I was like, “You guys are going to think I’m crazy, but bear with me. And everyone was just like… “Oh my god.”
Charlie: For this whole project I definitely was like let’s let Max take the reigns. I trust his vision and have for many years. Jean did an amazing job - when you’re doing a dance number with people who can’t dance, it can feel like how is this possibly going to work - but Jean made it look really good, and so did everyone else who was working on it. The video looks great thanks to Jean and everyone who put a lot of work into it. I'm not a better dancer than I was before but maybe you can’t tell.
How did you put together the full team?
Max: Jean had the connect for the DP, and he had a connection for a proper gaffer. Our friend Christian has a set shop in Williamsburg that we used to play shows at before the pandemic. It was a great space to shoot in, there are so many props in there already, so it really all just fell together. I really like the way that the project worked, we used what we could because of the budget, but it looks a lot more expensive than what we actually paid for.
Charlie: It looks a lot better than what we thought it would look like because of the expertise of all the people we worked with. We’re really happy with it. The place we shot at is called First Light and they can make set’s for whatever you need.
Max: After hours the space either transforms into the venues Sugar Light Lounge or The Sex Shop.
Jean: Christian who made all the set pieces has a band too called Sugar Life, and they’re a very theatrical experience to see, I highly recommend that show.
Is there a piece of art that inspired the video, a song, or otherwise?
Max: We made a mood board when we started, and I put a bunch of Kate Bush music videos in there where she does fantasy-inspired dance movement-based pieces, and also a bunch of stuff from Labyrinth. We have a term for this in the band called “Pouchy” which has no strict definition. It’s a reference to how an elf would have a satchel tied into their robe - we were going for that type of vibe.
Jean: Secretly, I didn’t put this in the deck or anything, but I was looking at a lot of Busta Rhymes-type videos with the dancing. He’s so great at layering absurd concepts on top of the dance. I was also looking at medieval reaction memes - actually, I might have just been doing that for my own personal enjoyment to waste time.
Can you tell me about the crystal ball and how it was implemented in the visuals? I know it’s used regularly as an image for the band.
Max: The Crystal ball is the portal into the band universe, in this case, it’s the portal into the fantasy world of any type of band. As a fan you can become obsessed with a musician, and I grew up doing that band after band. Once you’re in that little ball, that illusion, that spell...there’s real people and personalities, and it gets really complicated - it’s just like a messy relationship basically.
Charlie: Facts.
Jean, what’s your background like with music videos, and what intrigued you about working on this particular song?
Jean: I really like watching videos and the first one I released as a director was slightly before this one. It was a hip-hop video for a Madlib and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire song, which was completely different in tone. I really like listening to different types of music, my worst nightmare would be listening to one type of music or making one type of thing.
The thing I really like about music videos and working with different types of artists is the challenge of thinking about what would make someone want to listen to the song more. It’s like having a set of stop characters and then doing something that’s true to those characters, something that doesn’t take precedence over the other piece of art that you’re working with, which is the song. Complimenting and heightening is what I think is the job.
Why did you guys choose this song in particular for a video over others?
Charlie: That’s a great question. I feel like we always felt like “Restless Angel” was a theatrical number in our repertoire, it’s dramatic and the ending has a Grease the Musical vibe. We wanted to have a ridiculous visual to complement it.
Did performing this song live influence the way you thought about how you wanted the video to be?
Charlie: This is one of the only songs we don’t play live, which may be another reason we chose to make it into a video.
Max: There’s a backward logic because we had the album and we were voting on the song to be the music video, and this was the one that was chosen.
Charlie: It’s hard to get everyone on board in the band with a unanimous and democratic vote for anything. I’m glad we chose this one because I do think it was the right song for a video.
Were there specific music videos that you have really loved in the past outside of Kate Bush that inspired you to do this?
Charlie: After we made the video, I saw Caroline Polacheck’s video for So Hot You’re Hurting my Feelings. I was like God damn because there are similarities with the smoke machine and dancing and the set.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
Max: Just to emphasize that this couldn’t have come together without our team. Jean obviously is super critical to how we got the visuals, Ruth did the costumes and Hannah Mitchel helped us with choreography. I had never done any movement work before and she helped us book studio time - one day we went into the studio and played the song multiple times and got weird with it, that was really fun. I really wanted Charlie here because when it comes to getting people in a cool safe space and dancing and putting on a show, that’s where Charlie really shines.
I know this is about the music video, but we are primarily a live band, that’s what we’re all about. We are so looking forward to being able to play again, we’ve been practicing in my backyard even. We are going to record a single in a couple of weeks with a very thorough Covid testing protocol, we’re just really excited to get back into it and get the ball rolling.
How do you foresee your scene recovering post-pandemic?
Charlie: I think there’s going to be a good amount of shows happening outdoors over the spring and summer. I have no idea when we are going to return to crowded shows at DIY venues, it depends a lot on the vaccine rollout. What sucks about covid is that it’s so hard to predict, I don't think anyone has successfully predicted how any of this has gone down.
Sweet Baby Jesus will definitely be playing shows next year in an outdoor setting as safely as possible. There are lots of ways to still have live music and culture in this city safely without it being indoors in confined spaces, drinking and spreading germs to one another. The outdoor spread of Covid is much less of a problem and I think there will be some semblance of music over this year happening and I really hope that we can play. We can’t wait to get back to it, entertaining the people.
If I were to say one more thing, a lot of people have moved out of New York because of Covid and a lot of spaces are going to open over the next couple of years because rent is down. It’s going to be easier for new stuff to spring up over time - which is something to look forward to. There’s a lot of venues that have closed which I’m really going to miss, but new things are good too. Especially stuff for younger people in general.
Jean, do you have any takeaways from shooting this project?
Jean: I learned about friendship and filmmaking and music (laughs). I don’t know what else to say about the process, I guess that’s why I’m a filmmaker and not a writer. I really enjoyed making this and I’m very excited for live music to come back. Like so many others I haven’t been to a show in a long time, and I really want to go to one.
Is there any final word you want to say to the fans?
Max: I have a little bit of self-doubt that we actually have fans these days, but I know that they exist. It means so much to me and to all of us because this is truly a labor of love. I wouldn’t say that we are the hardest working band, but we do the most emotional labor for sure. We really bring a lot of serious emotional energy to the table, to the evening. I just can’t wait to keep on delivering that.