All Them Witches released their sixth full-length album, Nothing As The Ideal, on September 4, and they’ve now received a nice promotional boost for it with actor Drea de Matteo, aka Adriana La Cerva from The Sopranos, signing up to direct and star in a video for the album’s nine minute closing track, Rats.
The New York-born actress happens to be dating All Them Witches drummer Robby Staebler, who also stars in, and co-directs, the video.
Nothing As The Ideal was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London and Staebler tells the Brooklyn Vegan website that he and his partner dreamt up the ideas for the video for Rats when they returned to Los Angeles as the coronavirus pandemic locked the planet down. Stuck in quarantine, they brainstormed shots and characters, which the drummer says he’d never done before for a video.
“I’ve always approached filming videos for the band as I do shooting still images - focusing on shapes, compositions, colours and tricks to pull a subconscious story from. This was totally different,” he says. "Drea outlined a linear story that we worked out together before any film was loaded. Completely out of my comfort zone. I’ve also never worked on a slow song before, so the challenges for me were front and center.”
“The heaviness of the world situation mixed with the seriousness of the story really took a toll after countless hours editing,” he admits. “The lines between storytelling and real life became blurred. In all the darkness we somehow managed to find moments of light.”
