My heart is so filled with all the support surrounding us and this song and video we put out today. This is just the first of many things to come so I’m just so stoked to get to share this art with you all. It’s a long time coming.

This video was such a hair-brained idea I had. Like I literally popped up out of bed one day close to Halloween and immediately told Jess, we’re going to get costumes and film a video for this song even though it might be on-the-nose to dress up as Emperors. I wanted to film us around town, but we settled for getting ourselves a green screen and rigging up the practice space for a little more privacy with our royal garb and we had just enough room to film things. We filmed it all in 1 day and filmed at various speeds to get cool effects and there is so much footage I could have used but I think I got the best stuff. Chopped it up with some vacation footage I took with my parents in Italy and voilà. (Easter egg: The only non-blurred out face in the museum is my Mom who meant the world to me and who I think would have really enjoyed this vid.) 

–Jac

​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

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