“Little Hell” is right! The latest installment from Dali Van Gogh’s The Testament saga is more than aptly named, and whatever the reasons behind the song itself, they hardly compare to the trials and tribulations the band endured to bring it forth into the world.
From some technical mishaps to the reshoot that nearly got guitarist Isaac Kent decapitated, “Little Hell” was a wild ride.
The song itself was inspired by the cornucopia of bad gas 2020 brought, with themes of isolation and confinement, combined with the hangover of relationship breakdown that’s been a heavy source of material for Kent—all kicked off with a line tossed out by frontwoman Rachelle Moreau: “You don’t know me but you soon will when I come in, come in for the kill.”
“Isolation and strange circumstances have a way of doing funny things with your head, as I’m sure a lot of people experienced during any of our several lockdowns,” says Kent. “The song can also be seen through the lens of someone effectively trapped due to their circumstances. Not unlike many of us during lockdown.”
The bones of the song, however, had been around longer than that. “Little Hell” had been mix and mastered with former vocalist John Scotto in mind. The band was already working with multi-Grammy and Juno award-winning music engineer Eric Ratz (Enrique Iglesias, Billy Talent) when Scotto made the difficult decision to part from the band over health concerns and resulting in Moreau taking over as lead vocalist.
“I’m sure it was a tough decision for him,” says Kent, “but in the end, it was probably the right one. [Still] we were left with a fantastic new single, one which we’d spent a great deal of time and effort, not to mention money on.”
The band put together new vocals in record time but credit Ratz with being able to work and rework miracles in between other artists.
“We were lucky enough that a producer of his caliber was interested let alone available. In some ways, we can thank the pandemic for that, one of the very few things positive to come out of it. We managed to get our music in front of some of the ‘right people’ while they weren’t busy with bigger things.”
But overhauling the song was just the beginning.
In anticipation of big tours and fresh opportunities, “Little Hell” was getting treated to a video and—as you might expect at this point—it did not go as planned.
With an elaborate shoot at the Chebucto Head Lighthouse turning into a massive technical mishap with the video production company things quickly began to unravel.
Day one of shooting with the production company went according to plan, but as a warm-up aimed to capture mostly B-Roll footage. When day two rolled around, with the big shoot on location—involved dragging all the equipment, along with a small living room up to an old disused helipad, a kilometer uphill from the Chebucto Head Lighthouse—the last thing you want to hear is that someone forgot to bring the camera’s memory cards.
“We scrambled to get the shots we need in failing light so that we didn’t have to do it all again,” says Kent, noting the band had already been on site for 4-5 hours when the sudden need to retrieve the cards became apparent.
However, that still isn’t the end of it.
When the news came from the production company that all the footage from the second day of shooting had been accidentally wiped out, and the single release date rapidly approaching, the band went into overdrive.
“Of course, we are panic-stricken,” says Kent. “What could we do? The single was dropping in a few weeks time and we didn’t have a video. There was a lot riding on this release. In the end, I couldn’t find another reliable way to move forward and resolved to produce a new video myself.”
The band headed back to the lighthouse, only to spend two days on-site in near-hurricane conditions trying to recapture all the footage they had lost. The results were, arguably, more exciting than what had initially been proposed although only visible for a moment in the final video.
You can see for a brief glimpse around 2:59 where Isaac Kent is nearly decapitated when the high winds brought in a little extra production value.
“Johnny’s drum kit was literally blowing away. There’s a shot in the video from one of our B-cameras of a cymbal flying off the kit and nearly taking my head off. I didn’t even know that it had actually happened until after we had finished that take,” says Kent.
“Our sound technician, Zack Lacey—who at this point basically doubles as a videographer—had been taking some footage and, as you can hear on one of the clips, yelled out ‘oh God.’ I had my monitors in, listening to the song for the take. so I had no idea.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get a really great clean shot of it happening, but we were lucky enough to capture it on a B-camera so we could get it into the video in some way.”
Despite the close call, Kent was able to pull together a mere two weeks before it was to be released.
“Despite the hurricane-force winds on location nearly leading to a cymbal decapitation, everything came together on schedule,” says Kent. “I think we’ve delivered an incredible final result, with a crazy story to boot. I couldn’t be prouder of everyone in the band for their hard work and dedication in finishing the job under the worse possible circumstances.”
It also now looks like Dali Van Gogh—in no small part thanks to their new video—will be working with producer Eric Ratz on a full album this Spring in Toronto.