Nottingham’s Do Nothing return with new single ‘Happy Feet’ and a happy-go-lucky music video to match.
The scene begins as we’re transported to the audience’s perspective of what could easily be your school play that you were forced into as a kid. With a line of back up tap dancers, the name begins to relate to the idea of putting on a performance and vocalist Chris Bailey clarifies that it is, “not about penguins, never seen Happy Feet.”
With nan on the front row not really knowing what’s going on, your mates (the rest of the band) in the wings providing the mischief and the teachers shouting at you to do things properly, the setting could not be more perfect as Do Nothing explore how much control we really have over our life?
The catchy flair of the tune’s acerbic lyricism rounds off the idea of being stuck in a routine, as this is now stuck in my head, and equally the video’s centrestage performer (Bailey) becomes tired and physically sick of constantly being told what to do.
Admitting that the band were struggling with writer’s block on their journey to finish off their much-anticipated debut record, ‘Happy Feet’ can also be seen as an ode to overthinking the artistic process. ‘I put a leaflet in your bag for you to find later and burn’, Bailey explains, “is sort of a play on the idea that when you make music, you put it out in the world because you want people to hear it. It’s meant to be this pure expression of something, but there’s always that element of wanting people to like it.”
Photo by Adrian Vitelleschi Cook
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