Watch The Strumbellas’ Video for “Spirits”

On April 22, The Strumbellas will release album número three, Hope. Getting folks in the mood for it has been the soaring and big-stage-ready single, “Spirits.”

Now, a video for the song (which is one of Riffyou.com‘s absolute favourites at the moment!) has finally emerged and it’s a dandy! In an interview with Billboard, Strumbellas frontman Simon Ward explained the clip’s concept.

“The initial concept of the video ‘Spirits’ was from the 1970s James Bond film ‘Live and Let Die.’ When I was a kid, I remember watching the street style funeral scene in that movie and being blown away! I didn’t know people had celebration-style funerals like that with music and beautiful colors, so I wanted to make a music video with that theme in mind. In terms of the scary characters, I just hoped that we could scare kids a little bit… Not too scary, but I wanted kids to kind of get that feeling I got when I used to watch the old Bond movies.”

Recently, Ward spoke with Riffyou.com about how “Spirits” came to life:

“I have little recollection of when the chorus of the song ‘Spirits’ was written,” offers Ward. “This is pretty common with me though. I think I was noodling around when the band was in North Carolina in the green room of a bar we were playing at. I do remember that when I first wrote that chorus I thought it was worth remembering as I kept singing it the next few days after. (That’s usually how I know a song might be worth bringing to the band). After bringing the chorus to the band, they said they liked it but…it had no verses or bridge. Uh oh.

“Thus, I got cracking trying to piece it together. To be honest, Spirits is a mish mash of four different songs I was working on at the time. I pulled various parts from different songs I was working on and after many trials and error, we finally had a song! Oh wait…no lyrics. Crap! So then I got to work on the lyrics.

“Basically the song is about fighting your inner demons. Trying to change and become a better person in life. I write songs to reflect where I’m at in life, and this song is me saying to the world that I’m doing my absolute best right now to be a good person.”