The Human Hearts’ latest video sure put frontman Franklin Bruno on the spot. He finally had to learn how to ride a bike—and not pretend to learn, either. Director Scott Jacobson (The Daily Show, Bob’s Burgers) simply turned on the camera and documented the process for a can’t-make-this-shit-up visual accompaniment to “Still In Error.”
“Short version: I was an only child with overprotective parents, and it didn’t seem to matter once I started driving,” says the Queens, N.Y.-based singer/songwriter. “I’m learning in real time, and we’re documenting that.”
Bruno had been mulling the idea for decades. He’d originally planned to use it for “Sorely Tempted,” a 1993 track by his previous band, Nothing Painted Blue, but the video never happened. More than 30 years later, Bruno considers “Still In Error” a sort of belated sequel to that song.
It’s also the lead single from Faith And Credit, the Human Hearts’ fourth full-length LP and its first for the Dromedary label. Recorded and mixed by Southern indie-rock institution Mitch Easter at his Fidelitorium Recordings in North Carolina, the album’s 13 tracks roam fitfully through jangle pop, post-punk, roots rock, Motown and somewhat noisier terrain.
For “Still In Error,” the band began with a simple two-chord riff before following it somewhere heavier and more hypnotic. “I’m not ashamed to say I hoped we’d end up in the neighborhood of Yo La Tengo, the Clean and early Stereolab,” says Bruno.
The video was shot in front of Bruno’s childhood home in Upland, Calif. But there was a problem: He still couldn’t ride the damn bike. So he practiced with Human Hearts drummer Matt Houser and eventually took a free lesson in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with 20 or so other adults. His homework paid off.
“I was committed to not having the video end in defeat—but the song is more ambiguous,” says Bruno. “The lyrics are about never being sure whether you’re doing life right—whatever that means—and who gets to pass that judgment, whether in school, the workplace, a music scene or society at large.”
We’re proud to premiere the Human Hearts’ “Still In Error” video. Faith And Credit is out November 13.
—Hobart Rowland
