Hoobastank is using its single “My Turn” to give fans their turn at being music video directors.
In addition to the regular broadcast clip for the song — the lead track from Hoobastank’s fourth Island album, “For(N)ever,” due Jan. 27 — the band and director P.R. Brown (Goo Goo Dolls, Slipknot) have created an interactive version of the video that allows viewers to mix and match a variety of personalities to perform the song.
Many are the four members of the band themselves, performing in a series of costumes. Others include bikini-clad models, senior citizens, frontman Doug Robb’s mother and father-in-law, and members of the production crew.
The video, housed at myturn.hoobastank.com and linked from the band’s official Web site and MySpace page, also lets users personalize the clip by uploading their own backgrounds.
“It’s starting to tap into new territory of what interactive music video is going to be,” says director Brown, who worked with programmer Daniel Kim from Deep Fried Productions (M.I.A., Gwen Stefani, Nine Inch Nails). “We’re at an early stage in technology where we can start to offer these kinds of choices for people online.”
Robb, who credits Hoobastank manager Jordan Berliant of the Collective with the interactive concept, says the group wanted to “take advantage of the medium … to do stuff you can’t do on a TV video. Basically you’ll never see the same video twice.”
He also acknowledges that the extended cast “is even funnier to me, because I’ll click on my mom to do the singing and, oh my God, she just looks ridiculous! I think it’s pretty funny even if you don’t know who people are.”
Brown also created a more straightforward version of the “My Turn” video, a fast-paced, videogame-referencing gallop that shifts through glimpses of the assorted cast members.
“With the current craze of ‘Rock Band’ and that kind of user-generated experience, I wanted it to look and feel as if it was being created on the fly by someone playing a videogame,” Brown says. “So we built a world around what this videogame might look like, with all the different players along the way.”
The broadcast version of the “My Turn” video debuted Jan. 9; the song is No. 34 this week on the Modern Rock chart. Hoobastank hits the road Jan. 28 as part of a North American package with 3 Doors Down and Hinder.