I know what you’re thinking and this post has nothing to do with Rock Band or Guitar Hero.
I read Jacob’s recent post about April 24th having been National Take Our Sons and Daughters To Work Day in the US. We Canucks have a similar program called Take Our Kids to Work on November 5th. We went with the more straightforward name, but limit it to Grade 9 students only, so I’ll have to be patient before I’m able to let any of my kids loose in the cubicle farm.
Coincidentally, I ran into a buddy of mine at a concert on the weekend. Yes, I was out for a rare night on the town, catching one of my favs, re-formed Toronto new wave band Blue Peter (no relationship to the BBC kids’ show of the same name). That’s the unlikely locale where I happened to hear about one of the cooler “Take Your Kids To Work” bits I know of. Which is where these threads -Kids at Work, Dads, Technology and Rock- all come together.
Stewart Reynolds is the front man for Canadian pop band Brittlestar and he’s also the father of two young children. Reynolds, who obviously knows his way around the Interwebs and does a pretty decent job of promoting his band, including producing videos that feature “cheapness, disguised as artistry,” took things to the next step for his most recent single, It Gets Easier. He equipped his kids and a helper with a collection of consumer grade devices, including an $80 digital camera and a Canon mini-DV camcorder, and let the trio (aged 6, 7 and 9) loose in a rehearsal hall to film a music video. As Reynolds puts it: “Why pay for an actual camera crew when I have two kids myself and I can round up some other kids…for free?” Post-production was done on a $300 PC using $60 worth of editing software.
No word on whether the craft services table for the video shoot featured Oreos, fruit roll-ups and juice boxes instead of the standard fare, but I’m willing to bet the kids had a blast.
You may have caught a Brittlestar tune on MTV’s Real World and you can download tracks, including their newest album Arcane Anthems, from iTunes. Disclosure: the bass player in the video who kind of resembles me, but with more hair and talent is my little bro.
