Last month, Grumpy shared a music video for their single “The Whale” at one of NYC’s most familiar landmarks: Coney Island. The acoustic-guitar-led track landed ahead of the band’s forthcoming Unfindable Ring LP, which arrives at the end of the month after band leader Heaven Schmitt amassed a significant following between their eclectic project’s own recent releases and the visibility achieved by playing as a member of Zach Bryan’s band. Yet the “Whale” video exists in opposition to that newfound globe-trotting success: a simple concept set in a well-known corner of their hometown, paired with a bristling folk tune defined by shades of grunge that never quite breach the song’s surface. “This summer, one way or another, we kept ending up at Coney Island,” Schmitt shares of the video shoot. “We went for baseball games, took friends to the arcade, shot music videos, swam, and ate hot dogs. It became a place I grew so fond of, like something was always calling me back to that boardwalk on summer nights.”
Killing two proverbial seagulls with one Skee-Ball, the band additionally filmed a “Neighborhoods” session for us once the sun went down on the shoot. Performing a stripped-down acoustic version of the track, Schmitt and bandmate Diego Clare duet on the shore while the tripped-out camera effects featured in the music video are employed here to equally dizzying effect. “At the end of a long day, we celebrated a job well done by picking up a picnic of cold salads, manti, and pickles from Tashkent Market,” Schmitt recalls. “We took a quick swim, then sat on the dark beach and ate. Tired and satisfied, we passed pickles around to sample and talked about how much we loved our song. From the beginning—freshly written with just voices and acoustic guitar—it was a song we were incredibly proud of. We decided to try to capture it in that original form, right there on the beach, after a long day of filming.
“Diego and I sat in front of the camera and sang,” they continue. “Because it was a 360 camera, you can see the dark outlines of the rest of our band listening and looking on. Even a few other beachgoers gathered around to watch. This video captures me doing my favorite thing, in my favorite place, with my favorite people. Happy and with wet hair, we sang ‘The Whale’ one more time.”
Check it out below, and pre-order Unfindable Ring here.
