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BingeNinja & The First Seed Release “Don’t Lie” + Interview With BingeNinja

BingeNinja & The First Seed Release “Don’t Lie” + Interview With BingeNinja

BingeNinja & The First have released a new music video for their track “Don’t Lie” off of their album “Selfish Gestures”. At first glance, the task “Don’t Lie” seems like an easy one, most of us don’t have a big problem being honest with the people around us. But this new song takes that a level deeper, because being honest with ourselves? Now that’s often a harder task. BingeNinja’s Shane Burrow explains

“The majority of the lyrics on “Selfish Gestures” were written during sessions where The First Seed and I were together in the same room. They were very stream of consciousness, and intended to be expansive and figurative. “Don’t Lie” was the one song I had written by myself, and whose words were meant to be extremely direct and literal. Essentially, in our relationships and interactions with others we are quite astute when articulating truths outwardly. However, when it is time to be honest with ourselves, we can be quick to dilute the narrative so as to let ourselves off the hook. In the case of “Don”t Lie” I was highlighting the age old trap where if we lie to ourselves enough times we eventually begin to believe that lie. “

The song features Burrow’s signature vocals, filled with raw emotion over top of an acoustic guitar and a pulsating electronic drum beat. The song takes you on an introspective journey and makes you question, how honest am I with myself? How easy is it for me, to reckognize when I’m lying to…me. On the creation of the song, Burrow tells us

“The lyrics came first. The musical arrangement was actually totally different and composed as a full band performance. I transposed the chords into an acoustic rendition and brought the song to one of The First Seed and I’s studio sessions. We had been discussing the importance of showcasing trip hop elements on the record, bands that had influenced us like The Story of Moaxe, Tricky, Massive Attack and Portishead. It just seemed to be the right vibe at the time. First Seed had me record on his Spanish nylon acoustic and once he overlaid the pulsing, droney drum line we knew we had something special.”

The video features BingeNinja, The First Seed and videographer Daneil Manock in a variety of locations. Pretty normal for a music video, but what’s unique about this video is that it shows you all the locations at once. It makes for a really interesting watch as your eyes and brain are pulled to different parts of the screen, trying to catch all of it at times and honing in one section of the screen during others. It adds to the experience of the song, to see for yourself click below!

When asked about the shooting of the video, and if he had any behind the scenes stories to share Burrow said 

“This is the first video shot by my cousin Daniel Manock, and he was living in Brampton at the time, so we shot everything on a late night path walk through the suburban forest trails. I had First Seed send me some shots of him from out in Niagara too. His awesome dog Mack makes an appearance as well.”

“I always love going out in public with someone and filming video. With the finished product all you see is the serious faced performance shots, but the majority of the shoot is spent laughing, acting silly, having drinks and putting yourself in ridiculous situations. First off, it was freezing cold and the wind was insane, so acting all hard while recording and then dying between takes was classic. We broke into a construction site to film, only to realize it was a giant mud hole, so by the end of the shoot it looked like someone had been dragging us behind a horse in the old west. It was also hilarious to film a shot of Daniel lip syncing the song, never having been on camera before or knowing any of the song lyrics. My eyes usually gravitate to Daniel when watching the video. Him and First Seed with Mack.”

The last question I asked Shane was what it’s like being an artist in Toronto in the middle of this lockdown, he had a really great an inspiring answer. I’ll leave you with that quote, but first want to include the link to BingeNinja and The First Seed’s album “Selfish Gestures”, if you’re looking for some music to add to your lockdown, I definitely recommend checking out the rest of the album

https://thefirstseed.bandcamp.com/album/selfish-gestures

“The obvious answer is frustrating. That being said, everyone is in the same boat so there is a certain level of shared, collective solidarity. After a few months of the initial shock of the pandemic, I started to become extremely productive with writing song ideas, video treatments, artwork, recording and shooting because live performances were out of the question. I started making small, fun goals for myself that would keep me positive and motivated (“By the end of this week I’m gonna finish the lyrics to a song”, “Next weekend I’m gonna do a fun IG live performance with one of my musician friends”, “this week I’m gonna get shots for a video”, “I’m gonna finish editing by this date”, etc). The pandemic has given me the ability to not hold on so tightly and obsess over dates and deadlines to the point of stressing out, which has been an unexpected gift. I am calmer in creating, and learning more and more to take joy in the process as opposed to obsessing over the result. Of course, I would trade all of that in an instant if I could get onstage with my band and turn it up to 11…..WE’LL GET THERE!!!”

 

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About The Author

Jesse Read

Jesse Read is a videographer, writer and editor for Dropout Entertainment. As a musician as well as a videographer, Jesse has travelled the country numerous times, playing alongside and listening to the stories of hundreds of artists. A few of those are documented on this site. For video's, interviews & features follow the contact us tab!

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