If you're looking for "I Spys," dating or LTRs, this is your scene.
View ProfilesPublished February 21, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.
There was a time when Gen Xers were known as the "MTV generation." As a card-carrying Xer, I'm relieved the tag didn't stick any more than the "slacker" label that our loving baby boomer parents tried to drop on us, along with low credit scores and student loan debt.
The MTV association was understandable, though. Music videos were a game changer for the industry in the '80s, when it became the standard practice to shoot a promotional film to accompany a single release. For those of us who grew up during the cable TV explosion, MTV was a hub for all things cool.
Yes, you had endless videos from pop stars on a loop. But MTV also introduced me to the Pixies, Public Enemy, Björk, Los Lobos, Talking Heads, Tori Amos, Gang Starr ... you know, before the channel devolved into endless episodes of idiotic shit such as "Ridiculousness" and "Catfish: The TV Show."
While the days of music videos shot with film-quality crews and sets and massive budgets are largely over, the music video as a concept is alive and well — especially in the 802 music scene. When Essex Junction native Kayhl Cooper, who had directed videos for Vermont artists such as Francesca Blanchard, the Dead Shakers and the Essex Green, departed for New York City a few years ago, he left a gaping hole in his wake. Many singles went without a video. Or worse, musicians made videos on their cellphones that, while occasionally creative, usually just looked like, well, shit.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and eventually others stepped into that void. Kelly Butts-Spirito got behind the camera to shoot videos for artists such as North Ave Jax and Trippie Redd, bringing a ton of energy and hype to the tracks.
Then there are the Holy Smokes Studio guys. Brothers Pat, 24, and Seamus Brennan, 22, formed a filmmaking duo in 2022 and have been on a tear with their high-quality, low-budget (or no-budget) videos, mostly for the local hip-hop scene. The brothers achieve impressive levels of production, often weaving stories from the song's lyrics. Their video for former 99 Neighbors member conswank's single "Mad Life," for instance, shows the rapper moving between being onstage and in recovery.
The video they made for conswank's "Holes in My Denim" is even more poignant, shot inventively in a small alcove in the rapper's Burlington apartment. The almost claustrophobic set, covered in bolts of fabric, might remind viewers of Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), who also shot stunning videos for the White Stripes and Radiohead.
"We both followed the work of bigger music video directors and realized that no one was doing anything like that here," Seamus said by phone from the brothers' studio in Burlington's South End. "But we wanted them to be happening, so we just started filming them ourselves with our friends."
They drew inspiration from other DIY filmmakers such as Cole Bennett, whose blog (and eventual multimedia company) Lyrical Lemonade featured Chicago's up-and-coming hip-hop acts.
"It sounds a little lame, but we both got into filmmaking from growing up watching a ton of YouTube," Pat said. "It felt possible to make those sorts of things."
Both brothers also attended filmmaking workshops at CCTV Channel 17's public access summer camp before studying film at the University of Vermont. After graduation, they went out to Los Angeles, where they worked on sets as production assistants and in the art department.
"We saw these big sets and the quality of the stuff getting shot, and we wanted to try to replicate that as best as we could when we came back to Vermont," Pat said. "But on those kinds of sets, we wouldn't have ever had any kind of creative control." Shooting on their own, they can find the "creative fulfillment we do this for."
In a talent-rich and money-poor scene, it's rare for Holy Smokes to have an actual budget to shoot their videos. Even when they do, it's no guarantee of smooth sailing.
"Well, conswank's label gave us a budget to shoot his videos, but we had to front the whole thing," Seamus explained. "And then the label ended up going bankrupt ... It was a terrible situation."
"We basically just thought we lost that money, but thankfully it came through, finally," Pat added with a rueful laugh.
After doing so much heavy lifting for the scene pro bono, the brothers are ready to move into more commercial work. They recently signed a contract to film content for Beta Technologies, the Burlington-based electric aerospace manufacturer.
"We've done so much free work, we don't really know how to charge people," Pat admitted, as both brothers shared a guilty laugh. "The people at Beta saw what we were billing them and were like, 'Guys, you can't pay your rent like this. You have to charge more.'"
Even as Holy Smokes moves into other realms of filmmaking, they have no intention of leaving music videos behind. According to Pat, they have four videos in the can waiting to be edited, including a new release from former Burlington indie-rock act Father Figuer.
"We get sent tracks every day," Pat said. "People want a Holy Smokes video because of the quality, but we can't achieve that quality without time. So it's a balancing act."
"It's definitely a passion project for us," Seamus said. "We're friends with most of the artists we work for, and they needed videos, so we just wanted to fill that role."
Be sure to check out their work on their YouTube channel and at holysmokes.studio.
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