So Bishop our bass player has moved away to Colorado, we will miss them dearly, but we are happy to be able to play with the amazingly talented, Eric Donohue, who has joined us on bass. Here we are playing together for the 2019 NPR Tiny Desk Contest.
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Our music video "Beneath" is up for a Boston Music Award for "Music Video of the Year." Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. We love you all! Being yourself really pays off. 
Here's day 5 and the last day of filming of Happy Little Clouds' first-ever music video, "Beneath." Take a small tour of the eccentric characters that helped make this scene come alive. If you want to see the actual music video, visit it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Navs_...
Thanks to Stephen LoVerme for cutting this together for us. Stay tuned for the other behind the scenes footage.
Here's day 4 of the filming of Happy Little Clouds' first-ever music video, "Beneath." Watch as Jac gets a haircut from 5-year-old Britta. For ART! If you want to see the actual music video, visit it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Navs_.
Here's days 2 & 3 of the filming of Happy Little Clouds' first-ever music video, "Beneath." Watch how we discovered our band mascot and meet Jac's mini-me, Britta. If you want to see the actual music video, visit it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Navs_...
This is Happy Little Clouds' first-ever music video. We hope it will help you find your inner-child again. The story centers on rejecting others' expectations and embracing your true self, especially in terms of exploring, struggling with, or confirming gender identity. It brings the audience to a place where inner children lead the way as only they can. The video is the product of creative collaboration between The Secret Bureau of Art & Design, Treebeard Media, and Happy Little Clouds. It was filmed during the summer and early fall of 2017 in a number of locations between Maine and Massachusetts.
Directed by Jenny Bergman Cinematography & Editing by Stephen Lo Verme Drone Cinematography by Bill Woodworth Additional Cinematography by Jenny Bergman & Erin Genett Costume Design by Sophie Kaplan Hair & Makeup by Amber Tortorelli Kid Wrangler & Prod. Support by Eliza Carpenter Story by Jenny Bergman, Jac Mestel, Stephen Lo Verme, Rainy Maple Logan, and Bishop Goguen Song written by Jac Mestel Music performed by Jac Mestel on vocals & guitar, Alex Toorish on drums, & Kelly Vaden on bass Produced, recorded, and mixed by Jonathan Wyman at the Halo, Windham, ME Mastered by Jonathan Wyner at M Works, Cambridge, MA Featuring Jac Mestel Rainy Maple Logan Bishop Goguen Britta Carpenter Jodene Palmer Chloe Pierson JC Supastar Climent Kristen Bonstein Moira Bonstein Wayne Bonstein Kaliegh Rodriguez Melanie Cantwell Ryan Dowd Drew Smith Ken McIntyre Extras Noelle Boc, Eliza Carpenter, Tracy Chevrolet, Leesa Coyne, Daniel Costa, Jonathan Crawford, Brian Dinh, Duy Dolan, Eric Donahue, Brooke Feinberg, Morgan Fleishman, Amy Galaviz, Linnea Herzog, Gary Hoare, Bethany Leavey, Dave Lee, Camian Mears, Heather Meeker Green, Grace Muron, Lisa Paradis, Magen Tracy, Special thanks to Diane Kersey Donohue, Peter Donohue, Ula Cafe, Maribeth Toorish, Sarah Decoteau Check out this great write up we got in Vanyaland 
As you might recall, we have been working hard on a music video for our song Beneath. The day has finally come to show it. Tomorrow, after you emerge from your Snow Bomb Blizzard cabin-fever haze, come check out our enormous "Pool Party" for trans rights video release at ONCE Ballroom Somerville. (More details below!) It's a pretty personal video for us since it deals with inner and outer struggles with gender identity and finding one's true self. Big shout out to our friends Jenny Bergman of The Secret Bureau and Stephen LoVerme & Erin Genett of Treebeard Media who have helped our vision come to life. The video also stars Britta, who plays Jac's inner child, a 5-year-old "mini me" (seen below). She's freakin' adorable, right? You might even see her smiling face at the show, since everyone is invited to this safe space! Come help us celebrate the release by warming up poolside with us (yes, in the middle of winter) at our Pool Party for trans rights. It is an all-ages event and everyone is welcome. That means all ages, races, sexualities, gender identities and expressions are welcome at this show. Inclusivity feels SO GOOD. We hope that this event will feel especially inviting to those in the trans, queer, non-binary, and POC communities. All proceeds from the show (including from HLC merch sales) will support progress for trans rights and go directly to the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coaltion (MTPC). We'll have our new friend Mason from MTPC speaking about those rights and how we can help fight for our trans friends and family. At the show you'll also find other LGBTQIA-inclusive bands and music for everybody. Magen Tracy and the Missed Connections will bring their melodious, Fleetwood Mac-esque rock and Carissa Johnson and her band (winners of the 2017 Boston Rock 'n Roll Rumble!) will bring the heavy rock vibe for sure. You don't want to miss them as they're just coming back well-rehearsed from their massive tour. Also bringing down the house with her epic and thought-provoking art is Amber Tortorelli, a great friend of ours and an even greater human being and talented artist. Her often fairy tale-inspired art revisits classic stories we all thought we knew, ripping them back open to expose their deeper truths. We think this melds perfectly with our video's theme of finding truth through gender and personal identity. If you love art as much as we do, you'll be able to show your support and buy some of it at the show! Thanks for reading and until next time, much love to you. <3 Jac, Rainy, and Bishop Happy Little Clouds
JJ is an amazing person, photographer, and now club/restaurant owner who also was very much around the music scene in the 90s (she used to photograph her musician friends, including the likes of Kurt Cobain and other such folks). She is certainly bringing music back to Boston in a huge way and letting us little guys gain more fans by playing with these giants. We are forever grateful to her and ONCE Somerville. Not to mention their staff is the best and treated us with such respect and friendliness. And the sound was amazing! Shout out to Goose, our sound guy for the evening. We would certainly love to play there again in the very near future.
Pansy Division played like the queer rock royalty they are. The crowd went wild for them and they really brought their A-game to our little urban village along with a million of their albums, they have so many since they've been around for quite some time. I want to note that they were out as gay in the 1990s before anyone else was. Before straight men even played gay on TV or movies (I think). Before it was socially acceptable and I'm sure they faced (and probably still face) a lot of adversity on their road to rock-dom just for being their unapologetic, filthy-mouthed, super honest, punky and always fun brand of rock and roll. They are pioneers and I'm so grateful to have gotten to warm the stage up for them. I would be remiss to fail to mention the first band that played, The Fatal Flaw. They are a great local band that was certainly closer in style to us and they sounded amazing. One of their members, Joel Reader pulled double duty because he also happens to be the guitarist in Pansy Division as well! I hope we get to play with them more since they are local and aren't taking off in a camper to tour quite yet like Pansy Divsion is, so I'm sure we'll see them again. Also, I should mention it was the first time we played with our new line up (Rainy Maple Logan on drums, Beck Goguen on bass and me, where I usually am, up front singing and guitaring). We had only rehearsed twice as a full band before this and Beck learned all the songs in about 2 weeks and Rainy learned all the drum parts in about that time too. She had it a little easier since she knew how all the songs went from when she was playing bass in the band. And yet we sounded the most amazing the band has ever sounded, in my humble opinion! My new bandmates are such great musicians and thankfully really fast learners. And Beck and I got to interact on stage for the first time, which was incredible to be able to dance around and get silly up there. And Rainy held down that beat like a beast. All I had to do was concentrate on singing, it was amazing! I felt so lucky to share the stage with them. And I'm pretty sure the audience noticed our spontaneous epicness too. I think it's safe to say that the crowd that Pansy Division brought out last night was certainly the warmest to us and we came away with so much love, email sign ups and great conversation. It's so nice to be able to connect with people after a performance. And they left with some of our brand new albums and even our signatures! That was the first time adults have asked for our signatures and we hope the trend continues! The only other time we've been asked for signatures was when we played at lunchtime at Girl's Rock Camp Boston by 8–10 year old girls. Those little girls were the cutest! I just never thought adults would also want our John Hancocks. Anyway, enjoy this vid of Pansy Division in all their glory. We hope they come back soon. Stay happy! Jac
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AuthorJac Mestel (vox/guitar). Graphic designer by day, rocker by night. Songwriter, driver, lover, vegan, dog-obsessed, entrepreneurial, introspective, healer, Sagittarius, happy little cloud. Archives
April 2019
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