The Making of SQUASH: A Satirical Music Video
I’d been wanting to make the Shameful Choir into an entity since first creating the character for REVENGE OF THE SUPERMOM (2020). Now it’s finally happening with the satirical music video, SQUASH.
As with writing the lyrics to BAD MOMMY (Supermom), I spent a few weeks researching insults and their history. If you want a somewhat cathartic experience, spent an hour watching insult compilations from films on YouTube – it’s weirdly satisfying. I am a Shakespeare fan, and I’ve always had a strong appreciation for the insults he used in many of his works. This appreciation led me to look deeper into ancient English insults, amongst other sorts.
I did research while composing the music for SQUASH as well. I took a lot of inspiration for this song from The Monster Mash (Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt Kickers) and Thriller (Michael Jackson). It features a very synthetic electronic sound, with a few more realistic sounds thrown in the mix. There’s no designated rhythm pattern or key for the song, it’s a bit more organic (although if someone were to analyze it I’m sure there is a pattern present, and the notes more or less fall into the Phrygian mode of D-flat major -this being an unintentional effect). The song itself has an ABAB format.
Creating the vocals for SQUASH was a new and fun experience for me. I used to sing a lot in my teens and early twenties, but it’s been quite a while sing I actually worked on vocals specifically. I first created a guide track of myself singing to test out the lyrics in coordination with the background track. Then I created a five-part harmony of 2 sopranos, 2 altos and 1 tenor part. Alto 1 and Soprano 1 are the two most prominent voices in the recording. It took several takes to get the recordings just right, and another week of mixing the different tracks and performing different export tests for the track.
Making the music video was super fun! I don’t really wear a lot of makeup unless for a specific event, so it was fun to play around with what I wanted the makeup to look like. I took most of my inspiration from the Shameful Choir masks in Supermom, as well as from Dr. Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror Picture Show. With time and more practice I think my makeup application abilities will improve. The costume for this video was a very simple costume cloak and long gloves from a Halloween store. I string up some glittery black curtains for a backdrop and bought an assortment of mini pumpkins for the video. The three heads had to be filmed in triplicate so that they could be superimposed later in editing. We were also very creative with the lighting, using what we had available in our living space. We have a very intense conical lamp that we foiled up and used as a key light. The sides of the lamp were diluted by tinted glass, and the foil added some shape to the beam direction. We also used some Christmas tree lights and a ring light for fill. To give the backdrop a little more texture we blew a fan on it, so that the sequins on the curtains “glisten” a little in some of the shots.
Filming the pumpkin stop motion was also super fun! This particular pumpkin actually did have a very strong “gourd smell” (lyric reference). I think it also had some kind of pressure build up inside because when I cut into it, it started leaking everywhere, and when I tried to pull the lid off, it literally shot up off the top of the pumpkin in an eruption of seeds that flew all over my kitchen. The stop motion video sequence in the music video runs at 16 frames per second, and contains about 2700 photos.
If you haven’t checked out SQUASH yet on YouTube, please do! Thanks for reading.
THE LYRICS: SQUASH
Soggy pumpkin, soggy gourd.
Vermillion vibrance, strong orange colour,
Ooze apricot, old carpet bag.
It’s scary it’s frightening,
Mush spewed out,
Citrine seeds, stringy goo.
Why do you torture me with gourd smell?
Gourds gone gooey, they get gangrene,
No more a fruit, nearly a fart.
Soggy pumpkin, soggy gourd.
Wet water pus-bowl, buried dead dreams,
Compost bucket is too far away.
Don’t drip brown fun on my shoes, they’re suede,
Have mercy, don’t sploosh on my hems.
Soggy pumpkin, soggy gourd.
Bodiless flaming seedy sack,
Juicy sick bag, ghoulie gaslighter.
Squashy slimy slither, drip down my leg,
Help keep my kneecaps uncomfortably moist.
Soggy pumpkin, soggy gourd.
Vermillion villain, mouldy mush muncher,
Please don’t squish, squish and squelch,
Slimy sloths, soggy pumpkin soggy.
Celestial orb of false identity,
Wretched seedy bucket of snot.
Mastermind keeper of weepy wax wilters,
Graveyard for sad alkaline round-boys.
Soggy pumpkin, soggy gourd.
Mush squish gush and gooze,
Snout blazer, party pooper.
Soggy Pumpkin, soggy gourd.
Snooty magic, Mouldy makeup,
Dirty old vine, you’re funk and disgusting.
Eye slits, flaring big nostrils,
Peachy philandering fruit-bodied turnip.
Flammable dry-leaf candlelight licker.
Don’t burn my house down today please,
Take pity on my shameful self.
Soggy Pumpkin, soggy gourd
Soggy gourd, soggy pumpkin.
sarapagearts 