In addition to juggling two jobs, an internship, and classes, second year graduate student, Dean Christesen, also independently manages two bands. One of those bands, Glows in the Dark, just released the first music video off their new EP. The video was produced by Studio in the Sun, owned and operated in part by recent AEMM graduate, Sarah Newby (MAM ‘12). This is the first time that Christesen and Newby have worked together in this capacity, “but I hope we get to do it again!” Christesen said. “She and Ryan (the director) were such a joy to work with, and in the end they created an incredible video.”

Newby started Studio in the Sun while at Columbia with the goal of making videos that help artists and small business owners. This video came to be when Newby and her creative partners were searching for a new project, specifically a music video. “Dean was my classmate and I knew that he was involved with musicians through his record label Spacebomb…and he put us in touch with Glows in the Dark,” Newby explained. “ We liked the band’s music so we proposed a concept for a music video. Everyone involved with Studio in the Sun lives in Los Angeles now, and we cast and filmed the video in LA, but a lot of the pre-production for Ed Bradley was done in Chicago.”

The video embraces looseness and spontaneity as a reflection of the song it accompanies. “We wanted to build tension with escalating performances and by juxtaposing actors and suggestive still lifes,” Newby said. “We thought a lot about the artifice inherent in filmmaking and explored this idea in several ways. For one, actors knew they were being filmed for a music video, but from the start they were asked to act as if they were at an audition.”

The video is from Glows in the Dark’s new EP, Research and Development. The EP was released digitally on March 12, and features the avant-garde jazz quintet in a new configuration: collaborating with rappers Count Bass D, John Robinson, Jawwaad Taylor, and 20/20 aka uGeorge.

Watch the video here. Like what you hear?! Order the Research and Development EP now!