Entertainment

This band set off a car alarm and built an entire music video around it

Experimental band Too Many Zooz shot the whole thing in one take.
Experimental band Too Many Zooz shot the whole thing in one take. Experimental band Too Many Zooz shot the whole thing in one take.

How can a car alarm, arguably one of the world’s most annoying noises, make beautiful, captivating music?

Well, New York musical troupe Too Many Zooz, accompanied by a very talented pickup truck, are here to show you.

That wonderfully entertaining music video was shot in one continuous take and stars trumpeter Matt “Doe” Muirhead, saxophonist Leo Pellegrino and drummer David “King of Sludge” Parks.

The band have performed alongside Beyonce, been widely sampled and feature in collaborations with artists such as Kaskade and Jess Glynne, but it’s their quirky creations which have brought them viral fame and millions of YouTube views.

“We’re always trying to push the envelope and find new ways to make music,” Matt told the Press Association. “That’s the essence of brasshouse. Experimentation.”

Brasshouse is a term the band coined themselves, a self-defining genre of music and one which they have even given a TED Talk to explain.

“I think this video in particular is really polarising, in the way that you love it or hate it,” Matt said of Car Alarm. “As an artist, that’s a job well done.

“The very worst thing you can have are static viewers who don’t feel anything from what you’re saying.”

The band’s previous experimental works include Bedford, a song filmed in one take on an early morning underground train in Brooklyn.

“Bedford was one take mostly because that’s kind of what that situation permitted,” said Matt. “We were dealing with train times and police and stuff like that.

“(Car Alarm) took a lot of rehearsing, both from our side and the film crew’s side.

“Like Bedford, it is shot in one continuous take. That alone makes this sort of thing really difficult for obvious reasons.”

Matt said Car Alarm took five or six takes, a feat made all the more impressive by the deliberately added theatre of the alarm stopping halfway through.

So, what does the future hold for Too Many Zooz?

“We’re working on a lot of cool stuff, most of which I can’t talk about yet,” said Matt. “I feel like that’s always the case for us.

“Constantly touring and constantly creating. Sitting on a bunch of awesome content waiting for the right moments.”

If you’d like to keep an eye out for the band’s next special moment, check out their YouTube channel and Twitter page.