YouTube is filled with amateur cover artists. Most stink. On The ‘Tube extracts the exceptions.
Guitarist Casey Shea first tipped us to his band Everlea’s YouTube page more than a year ago. From the first video we played, it was immediately apparent that these acoustic covers needed to be categorized somewhat differently than the more amateur performances we normally dig up. Each video was beautifully filmed in a different location, swapping the usual bedroom-webcam aesthetic for barns and harbors. The cinematic backdrops frame Everlea singer Justin Dubé’s lovely acoustic takes on the Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and over a dozen others.
We had months of delays putting this together, but we can finally present an overview of some of our favorites, accompanied by notes from Justin. Though he features as the star performer, the man behind the camera proves just as important to the clips’ appeal and we asked Justin where these great shots came from. “I’m fortunate to have a very talented friend, Brooks Reynolds, who films all of my performances,” he says. “Brooks is a professional photographer/director who is very in tune with the visual aesthetic, always striving to capture interesting shots. As such, we might find ourselves on a freezing cold beach in the middle of the winter, or in a stifling hot warehouse in the middle of June. It’s a good thing our videos don’t convey temperature.”
Below, Justin takes us through five of the covers with anecdotes about filming on a bike, in a cotton factory, and amidst piles of sawdust. Everyone from Coldplay to Bedouin Soundclash gets filtered through his plaintive vocals and delicate playing and we hope we won’t have to wait another year and half to post on him and Everlea again.
Check out more from Everlea and Justin Dubé at YouTube.
