Norwegian mod-rockers, HANGFACE Nominated for Five Music Video Awards.

Norwegian mod-rockers, HANGFACE
Nominated for Five Music Video Awards.
Video Produced, Filmed, Directed and Edited in post-Katrina south Louisiana.


The New Music Video for "Wait," by modern/alternative rock group HANGFACE, has been nominated in Five (5) Categories in the 27th Annual TELLY AWARDS. Final Judging for the Winners will take place in early 2006, following the same protocol as the Grammy Awards.

The video almost did not make the entry deadline, as Hurricane Katrina impacted the production that was scheduled for September in south Louisiana - an area that was decimated by the storm.

"We had a lot of concert footage we shot on the road, particularly from our appearances in Sturgis, South Dakota with Disturbed, Shinedown, Queensryche and Twisted Sister," said guitarist Daggi Helling, "but there was no way we were going to eliminate shooting our storyline in south Louisiana. That's our second home!"

The band's creative director Matt Touchard met with the band in Luling, Louisiana, hastily drafting a new plan: shooting ethereal imagery that purposely avoided any images that depicted any negative scenes from the hurricane's aftermath. "There were a lot of huge trees down in Matt's backyard and that was cool," replied Espen Hogmo, Hangface drummer. "Yeah, and shooting us from strange vantage points in that environment was great, but we wanted to stay away from anything depressing like destroyed houses and rubbish piles; nature itself is a sweet thing" added singer Bee Flaa.

The video storyline was shot over the course of two days by Reserve, Louisiana native Lennen Madere (a recent film school graduate from the University of New Orleans - the school, located on New Orleans' lakeshore was heavily impacted by Katrina). Madere and Touchard worked with Hangface in the local region, shooting scenes in St. Charles, St. John, St. James, Lafourche, and Terrebonne parishes. "We had a lot of great stuff; it all fit together seamlessly." said Madere. And while the video does not present a literal interpretation of the song lyrics, it does have a unique point of continuity.
Hangface guitarist Tom Pedersen explains, "Matt was trying to get us to find a unique element for the video. He argued that some videos don't really have a story, but instead have a symbol or element of surprise. Like the red ball in Duran Duran's "Is There Something I Should Know" video from the 1980s. So we talked about it and I proposed using one of Matt's dogs, Bec as the connection." (Bec is a shetland sheepdog that has been in a doggie wheelchair since a back injury in 2004.)

"That was just freakin' amazing," bassist Hogne Rundberg replied. "That injury does not slow Bec down; he rocks!"

There are several other scenes that subtly give a nod to the band's history. At one point, old record albums are flipped through the scenes… Led Zeppelin and Bad Co., all records that were recorded or produced by the legendary produced Eddie Kramer, who happens to be Hangface's record producer. At another point, an A-Ha record surfaces, providing the smile to those that know that both Hangface and Grammy-winning band A-Ha both hail from tiny Norway. Even George Harrison makes a posthumous appearance, courtesy of Hogne Rundberg's printed sweater of the Beatles, craftily cut in precisely during the lyrics, "The sun smiles and you are smiling back" as a reference to Harrison's penned "Here Comes The Sun."

Complementing the stylized scenes shot in south Louisiana, the live concert footage adds a nice contrast with super saturated color and highlights the band's heart-pumping stage presence - all shot on the road by another south Louisiana resident, Kipp Pierce.

"Kipp did a killer job on the road for a month with Hangface in Colorado and South Dakota," said Touchard. "When he came back speaking Norwegian with that coonass bayou accent, I knew he had really absorbed himself with capturing the essence of the band's identity!"


THE VIDEO for "Wait" will soon be made available on the band's website (http://www.hangface.com) for download. They are now shopping it around to the national channels for airing and will be Premiering the Video at several shows across south Louisiana when they return for over one dozen appearances in January and February. (CHECK THE BAND's WEBSITE for APPEARANCES).

"People down there have endured a lot. We want to meet up with our friends and fans again and show them what it means to be connected to a place; a place we dearly love like family. We're gonna go down there and help them get back to that feeling that exists nowhere else in the USA. " Helling said in closing.


And down in south Louisiana, they are sure to show them the feeling is mutual.


*** HANGFACE can be reached through their website for bookings, contacts and general info: http://www.hangface.com
or contact the band's management at www.belchiasso.com ***

www.hangface.com

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