Los Angeles-based band Archer Black has released the first video from its upcoming album Forgiveness Is A Weapon, which is set for release through Post Planetary Records on January 3, 2012. The clip for “Onward & Down” was directed by Scott Cronan, a longtime friend and fan of Archer Black leader Dustin Morgan’s other band The Autumns.
“Scott helped me refine the vision to come up with something cinematic,” says Morgan. “Everything you see was done in camera without post production effects. For the water shots, Scott even swam out into the ocean with a waterproof camera at 5AM.”
“Onward & Down” stars actor Luke Barnett and Archer Black violinist Jen Thomas. “Luke was an absolute professional,” says Morgan about Barnett’s role as a soldier in what Morgan characterizes as a “death dream.” “We had a bag stuffed with bricks to make it look authentic and he must have dragged it up and down the beach a hundred times.” Of his band mate, Morgan confides “Jen is gorgeous. She’s married to one of my closest friends though and I’m not sure what he’s going to say when he sees that romantic sunset scene.”
“Onward & Down”’s lyrics, like most of Forgiveness Is A Weapon, uses some facet of war as a metaphor for a human relationship. Morgan explains, “The song was inspired by the fact that, prior to Vietnam, very few soldiers would discharge their weapons in combat. This is one of those facts that just stuck with me, screaming, ‘this is a profound statement about what it means to be human.’”
Musically Amusing 