Sounds of Noise- "What's It To You" - Draws Blood.

Sounds of Noise are a 3 piece band out of Long Beach, California and the brainchild of Eddie Angel Monroy (vocals/guitar), Paul Corley (vocals/bass) and Eric Zimmerman (drums). Their sound is straight forward bottom heavy indie rock with uninhibited dashes of psychedelic sounds. The video for What's It To You is a hallucinatory trip to wacky town with images of abduction, knife play, and weirdos jumping on beds. The song opens with noisy cool sustaining guitars that give way to a super catchy driving bass line. The tone is pure indie rock with a decidedly power pop edge and strong vocal melodies. It is the first listen and look at the upcoming Ambulance LP that Sounds of Noise have been working on over the past 10 months and is due to drop soon.  American Pancake is proud to of produced this video in conjunction with the band's own independent label S.O.N. Records.

We spoke to Sharky McWilliams who directed the mild mayhem.

AP: So who came up with the concept of the video?

Sharky: I originally had the concept of a sort of mental case / unstable girl who is making her way from a bar to some destination. That destination is a vacant house and Eddie and Paul are tied up in chairs that are nailed to the floor. The rest of the video was going to switch between scenes of better days and her basically torturing Paul and Eddie. That was it. Simple stuff.

AP: This video is a far departure from that description. What happened?

Sharky: Well, shit happens ya know (laughs). Some people who were committed to do the original concept could not do it at the last minute. We had a deadline to meet before the release of the record so we had to kind of make it up as we went along.

AP: Last minute rewrites.

Sharky: Fuck that. No time to rewrite. We had to just brain storm and Eddie and Paul are great to work with in that way. They are creative and are willing to try anything really.

AP: Speaking of Paul, he didn't end up as one of the tied up people in the video (?).

Sharky: No. When principal, key actors could not make our shoot date we chose to only focus on Eddie. The mental girl was supposed to have alter egos in the form of two other girls and we lost them all. It only forced us to think on our feet. I mean the night before the shoot was scheduled and it all fell apart I started taking notes and coming up with options. The original concept was not going to have any green screen in it. 

AP: Those shots with a shirtless Eddie Angel are some of my favorites. Gives the video an acid trippy feel.

Sharky: (Laughing) Yeah, Eddie ending up shirtless was off the cuff too. His idea and it looked better. Mind you, we shot the green screen in a backyard not ever knowing what I was going to do with it, what background could work.

AP: It looks, feels planned out.

Sharky: Well, it was touch and go for awhile. The key thing was for the images to fit with the sounds of the song and I think it works ok. We only had one day to shoot and we made those hours count. Eddie was tied to a chair for over 2 hours solid. I, personally, couldn't do that.

AP: That could be difficult.

Sharky: It doesn't sound hard but he was getting a little tense. Paul made jokes about it as did Eddie and in the end some of the key shots of Eddie kind of maniacally laughing was Eddie being real. Oh, and, by the way, Paul does end up briefly in the video (in a shot of the band playing and) at the very, very end.

AP: Who are the other "actors" who appear in the video.

Sharky: For now they shall remain nameless. They were part of the thrashing around in the water while you are drowning scenario.

AP: ????

Sharky: What I mean to say is that the two people who I will call the "mental case" and her "alter ego" gave their full blessings and permission to appear in the video but do not care to reveal themselves at this time.

AP: Is there a reason why?

Sharky: Let's just say they were pulled into the project really spontaneously.

AP: It sounds like it was against their will (said jokingly).

Sharky: Well.... I think they feel good about it. 

AP: When referring to this video I have heard comments like gothic and American Horror.

Sharky: I think it is more like gutter trash in a way. We brought two cameras and ended up using the lower end camera for much of the shots. It was clear that it was producing a real dingy, grainy look with a lot of muted unsaturated colors and I really liked the look of it. It also hid things and I didn't want clarity in the video at all except for the opening shot really and the shot of Eddie being drug around like he was just knocked out. Once he is in the mental case's hands I wanted that dingy creepy look.

AP: For a creepy torture video there is not alot of torture.

Sharky: Yeah, that is for sure. Once we played the song on a boom box during shooting it was clear that the song itself was not dark enough to go too hardcore. It is not a shocking graphic video and I like that it is not. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that kind of thing but not so much within the music video genre although there are some exceptions. Trent Reznor's classic 90's Nine Inch Nails- Happiness In Slavery is a video that still makes me go eeewww, in a good way especially when that contraption grabs Bob Flanagan's nut sack. But besides the obvious shock value, that music fit that imagery. Eddie and Paul's music is not dark. I would say it has a thoughtful kind of sad edginess to it but it is not dark.

AP: It is good stuff!

Sharky: It is indeed. 

AP: The knife shot in the video was graphic in a way.

Sharky: Not too graphic but I love it and I must say that it was a spur of the moment thing AND no trick knife was used.

AP: Hmmm?? 

Sharky: Seriously. That was a fucking steak knife taken from the kitchen. It was crazy shit.

AP: And the blood?

Sharky: We won't go there.
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American Pancake is proud to present Sounds of Noise "What's It To You" off the upcoming Ambulance LP-