VIDEO PREMIERE: Adrian + Meredith Make Strong Statement with Worldly Folk Sound on “Kids These Days”

Adrian + Meredith have always been ones to march to their own beat and have never been apologetic for the art they create. Since the duo joined forces in 2015, they have been pounding the pavement, putting their own spin on Americana. Their music embodies the spirit of the human story with a nod to punk, the heart of folk, flavor of Polka, and bounce of swing. Their live show will have you on your feet dancing, clapping, and stomping along.

2019 was filled with 175+ dates touring the USA and Europe with opening shows in the UK with The Legendary Shack Shakers, and tours in Sweden, Norway, and Eastern Europe alongside their US markets in the Midwest, and East and West Coasts.

So much of their travels influenced the music they have created and became the backdrop to their upcoming album, Bad For Business, slated for release in spring 2021. The entirety of the record is inspired by the late-night conversations while on tour abroad, where they inevitably found themselves as cultural ambassadors for the United States. Swapping stories and sharing songs about everyday life as an American, while weaving the complexities of the patchwork quilt that is the beauty of The United States, became a part of their craft, as much as their live performance.

Today Glide is excited to premiere the video for their tune “Kids These Days,” which was was written to celebrate and honor the students who started the #NeverAgain movement when they walked out of Stoneman Douglas High School in protest and pleas for gun law reform. Since that moment, the world has watched youth find their voices time and time again. Voices like Greta Thurnberg who led millions in a Global Climate Strike. And the voices that have tirelessly filled the streets marching for #BlackLivesMatter. This song is for the youth of the world who are using their voices every day in the name of social justice to ensure a future for their generation. Appropriately, the duo plays their song on the front steps of a school while a young girl dances nearby to the music. Musically, the song brings together the modern swing styling of acts like the Squirrel Nut Zippers, New Orleans jazz and folk, and tango. Layering in accordion, fiddle, acoustic guitar and even saxophone, the song captures a melange of worldly musical styles. The song definitely carries the energy needed to make a strong social statement, and this is accentuated by a restless fiddle solo. They also prove to be skilled in the art of foot percussion, which is featured prominently throughout the video. 

Watch the video and read our chat with Adrian + Meredith below…

Talk a bit about the song. What is it about and what prompted you or inspired you to write it?

Adrian: “Kids These Days” was written to celebrate and honor the students who started the #NeverAgain movement when they walked out of Stoneman Douglas High School in protest and pleas for gun law reform. Since that moment, the world has watched youth find their voices time and time again. Voices like Greta Thurnberg who led millions in a Global Climate Strike. And the voices that have tirelessly filled the streets marching for Black Lives Matter. This song is for the youth of the world who are using their voices every day in the name of social justice to ensure a future for their generation. It makes sense that the youth of America is trying to live a better, healthier, more inclusive, happier life than their previous generations. We should all be so bold.

This song comes from a forthcoming album and is the first single from that album. What do you think this song tells us about the album overall as a sneak-peek for fans?

Meredith: Most of the new record was written between two big European tours to the UK, Sweden, Norway, and Eastern Europe. We were on tour in Europe for 2.5 months last summer (2019). Much of the writing for this record came from some perspective we learned about how other places operate, and what being American means. It is an eclectic record, and this first single will definitely showcase that. Our travels not only inspired the content for our writing but also the musical inspiration, such as the flamenco flair in this song. Fans can expect a mix of a lot of styles of music inspired during our international tours.

The video taps into the vibe of the song really well. Whose idea was the video treatment?

Meredith: The video was filmed by Kaedi Dishen with a FujiFilm X-Pro 2. Though mostly used for photography she wanted the shots to be hand held to give it that “in the moment” feel.

Kaedi Dishen, videographer: The video treatment was entirely all them. Meredith came to me with the idea and story line for the video and already had the dancer in mind she wanted to use. When we started shooting, we all worked together to create the shots, and Bridget was a great subject with great talent. I made sure we got a good variety of shots that would easily tell the story in the way Adrian and Meredith had envisioned. It was one of the easiest video shoots I’ve done. They knew what they were looking for, and they wanted it to be in the moment and inspired, which is exactly what happened.

Who directed it? Did you film it during quarantine? Where did you film it? Who is the dancer in the clip?

Meredith: The video was a true collaboration of ideas and vision. It was filmed in August of 2020 and we were careful to maintain social distancing recommendations. Shooting outside was our best way to keep all of us safe while shooting. It was filmed at a local elementary school in the East Nashville neighborhood. We scoped out a couple different locations but loved the colors and variety that these grounds gave us.

The dancer in the video is Bridget Byrd, a ninth grade student and member of the School of Nashville Ballet Academy here in Nashville, TN. In 2019, she was accepted into the Boston Ballet Summer Intensive program, and in 2020 was awarded the Patricia C. Todd Scholarship. There was some poetry in that Bridget went to the same elementary school that we filmed at.

What do you think the video reveals about you and about the song?

Meredith: We wanted this song to feature a student, and to symbolize the amazing capability of youth talent. I think, as adults, we forget that there is so much to learn from the youth of our society. They are strong, talented, hard-working, and driven. We wanted that to be clear when we filmed it. They hold the key to not only their own future but the future of our country and our world.

Additionally, it was important for us to demonstrate the foot percussion in the song, which really is my feet that we recorded. By having the visual demonstration of that, we hoped it would reveal how we achieved that percussive effect.

Any funny/great stories from the video shoot?

Meredith: Across the street from the school we were filming at, there was a family with a very young girl, about 4 years old, who kept clapping after each take. At the end of the shoot, she came over to meet us dressed special in her Elsa costume. She told us she wanted to be a dancer like Bridget and how she wanted to be a musician like Adrian and me. It was a sweet and inspiring moment.

Pre-save link: https://sym.ffm.to/bvalee3

Photo Credit: Melissa Alderton

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