When Joost Brandes, Electrical Engineering student and saxophonist in The Swifterband, joined the activities committee of Studentproof Jazz, he heard from Merel van Lieshout and Twan Muste about an older idea to produce music videos in collaboration with film and video association Dekate Mousa. He set to work bringing the idea to life; “I thought it was a really cool plan.”

The core organizational team consists of five people, but counting all the participants and volunteers, about eighty people have been involved in the EHOOG Sessions. As of a few weeks ago, the results of the March recording weekend can be viewed on a YouTube channel. The project consists of twenty videos by eight bands.

Nerves

One of the smart decisions made was to assign participating bands homework in advance. “The bands had to record themselves on camera beforehand. They then watched it back so they could see what they would like to do differently, and the exercise also helped to shake their nerves. You want to stay focused on playing well,” says saxophonist Brandes.

As they practiced, the bands came up with various approaches for creating the visuals. Jazzmine, the band where Muste plays drums, was filmed from the center while playing Rita is Gone. The musicians stood in a circle and each of them was filmed in turn. Brandes’ band has very different choreography for Funkytown & I Feel Good. “Among other things, we thought about how we should walk up to the camera and back again and when to focus the camera on the baritone sax, for example.”

Other bands, for example funk band Jammer Man, left the creativity up to the videographer. “As a result, the recordings are very varied and well-suited to the music,” says Muste, who has an Industrial Design degree under his belt and is also the founder of a video production company.

E-hoog

The recordings were made at Luna, the cultural associations’ home base. Before the renovation, this building was called Potentiaal and housed the Electrical Engineering department. Prior to receiving that name, the building was called E-hoog (and by-the-by, Impuls – where Tech United is now preparing for the Robocup – was called E-laag). Reason enough for the musicians to call the recordings EHOOG Sessions.

The music videos are released on Friday afternoons at 3 PM sharp. This coming Friday, it’s Jammer Man’s turn with a cover of Redbone. There are enough videos to keep posting weekly until mid-October. It was a great learning experience, says Brandes. “It took more work than I expected, but we’ve learned so much now that setting up a second edition would take much less effort.”