Lovely Nuthin'
Glitter, Glamour, and Self-Obsession
Photographs By Merissa Blitz
New York band Damn Jackals share the music video to their single, “Lovely Nuthin’”. Beau Croxton, frontman of Damn Jackals, talks about cleaning up glitter, the importance of choreography, and how love will guide you.
New York City, USA
Who are the Damn Jackals and what is your music all about? (Who is in the band, history of the band, what your music represents, etc)
Damn Jackals is a Brooklyn NYC based retro-garage rock / proto-punk and 70’s punk revival band that thrives in many “in-betweens” of genre. We don’t like to stick to one thing too often- we like to switch it up and explore all the sub genres and moods of music that we feel strongly about. We add some modern flavors in the mix to keep things exciting. In the case of “Lovely Nuthin” -we added a 60’s Doo-wop and Surf rock flavor to our sound.
The band began when myself and Mike Goehler (drums) started writing heaps of tunes and recording them at my house upstate, dubbed the Crooked Castle. We had many different friends in and out of the band - but came upon a more permanent band lineup in 2018 of Max Motchan (guitar), Sean Burke (Guitar/Vocals/keys) , Sean “Mickey” McCann, Mike Goehler and myself Beau Croxton (Vocals/Guitar) We then released our debut album and had shows in support at Mercury Lounge, Baby’s All Right and much more till now. Right now we have the fantastic and very talented Sonny Ratcliff playing drums with us for local shows.
I would say our music and its purpose have a heavy focus on high energy, fun, various moods , playing with sub genres, and we do our best to play hard to the best of our abilities and give the best show every time. Sometimes there are running lyrical themes like on our upcoming release.
Since your 2018 debut LP, "Crooked Castle, Vol I", you've toured up and down the East Coast and played in festivals like the Savannah Stopover. What have been the band's most memorable shows and experiences?
We just headlined our release show for “Lovely Nuthin” at the Our Wicked Lady Rooftop and it SOLD OUT! So that was massively awesome and fun. Savannah Stopover was probably our collective favorite show as a band. It was almost like a homecoming show for me and Mike because we went to college there and I have extended fam there . We got to go see great bands like Deerhunter and spend the weekend showing the rest of the band Savannah, GA which is just beautiful. We also played a gallery show in Richmond on tour that was mostly college kids- that was really wild and the energy was nuts. Knitting Factory Brooklyn in January 2019 was also a big one, a very sick show.
In May 2020, Damn Jackals were set to play at the iconic Bowery Ballroom with High Waisted but had to cancel due to Covid-19. How did this cancellation and the overall pandemic affect the band? What did you do to overcome everything?
At that point, when that show was canceled - everything else had been canceled in the world everywhere haha. So it was pretty clear the show wouldn’t happen. All good , we were stoked to have been billed in the first place - And I’m very confident you will be able to see us there sometime in the near future . As far as The Pandemic, it taught me to be super considerate of my choices with new music that I’m working on, and for that I’m grateful because I found a new approach to yield even better results. The pandemic also prevented us from releasing “Lovely Nuthin’” (properly) which we recorded all the way back in November 2019! So we are pleased it got its proper summer release in 2021 - like we intended in summer 2020. I guess we overcame it by being patient.
You have released the video to your single, "Lovely Nuthin'". What is this song about?
Lovely Nuthin is a song about a character who is very self-obsessed, vain, wild, and carefree. A bit of the modern “selfie” and “look at me!” attitude -and social media dependency for validation in the mix. The lyrics parallel this and drug addiction- and the two have many things in common. The lyrics alternate between the two subjects. The chorus says the character won’t find success with this addiction, and by the end, the last chorus suggests Love as a way to guide you through overcoming it. While the lyrics are slightly dark, the upbeat tune is like the character’s mental soundtrack and I feel it wraps up nicely & positively. I have 5 years of sobriety under my belt now So I find myself writing about these themes a lot, but this time it’s a bit more personally triumphant.
How does "Lovely Nuthin" show your evolution as a band since “Crooked Castle, Vol I"?
I feel like Lovely Nuthin’ shows us opening up more the verses , having a sharper focus on a far more considered vocal take than our first album. We have 5 members so things can get loud and busy live. We had two guitars drop out to let the vocals shine on the verse more on this song- and it provides a more exciting and natural build to the music. Sometimes less is more. Also, our producer Paul Ritchie did an amazing job cleaning up our sound while keeping it “crispy”. His magic moment that elevated the song was these layered fuzzy guitar octaves on the chorus. He ran them through a Neve Console with a preamp which was entirely new for us. Overall, it’s a much more refined and matured effort. After playing so many shows I feel I had a grip on what’s working well, and we played this live number of times before recording it.
What is the music video to "Lovely Nuthin'" about? What kind of story did you want to tell?
The video honestly was far more about capturing the energy and vibe of the song and character rather than an exact story- with the blue beach-y vibe, glitter and glamour , the upbeat dance-y surf beat and retro aesthetics visually at play here. Brendan McKnight wanted to have this great 60’s TV show vibe and I went hard on all the confetti/glitter and the 4-point-star filter to get it looking on point. Matilda Sakamoto, our choreographer, honestly nailed every single mood and lyric perfectly, providing an amazing visual representation of the song through movement. Ultimately we knew the dancing was gonna drive the video, and after the dancing went down in their practices and on set they stole the show.
What were some difficulties you encountered while filming? What was the most fun?
We had a very small team so things got very complicated when things ran late on set - but ultimately we had the space rented for about 10 hours and we got 95% of the shots we wanted so all good! Really had to map out everything for many many weeks before we shot. We organized the shots and tried to measure out the stage for the band, amps, microphones, how far the dancers needed to be, our spotlighting and lights. Lots of rentals and scaling to size. So I would say the pre-production took the most amount of work, and was most challenging bar none. Also, now I’m a glitter and confetti expert (by way of trial and error).. I will say I’m glad I don’t have to clean up glitter and confetti ever again, that was literally a 2 day operation, hahaha.
Most Fun? We had so much fun doing this video in general. The red carpet dance off (at the end) was really great as we had finished everything else and it was very celebratory. Honestly working with such talented dancers like Eloise Deluca, Matilda Sakamoto, Taylor Boyland and AJ Tasley Parr was really amazing, new and fun for us. That was far and away the biggest take away.
What's next for Damn Jackals?
We have some fantastic shows lined up and in the works…as well as more music where “Lovely Nuthin’” came from which we are really excited about. Hope everyone’s ready for some heavy stuff ! Next year will be a really productive time as far as new material for the band as well. For now, come see us play new tunes at The Broadway this Friday August 27th! Thanks to all who are listening and watching, and thanks to y’all at Reckless magazine! Much love ! Ciao ! Xoxo
You Can Find More of Damn Jackals at @damnjackalsnyc
Watch the Music Video for “Lovely Nuthin’” Below
