The song Yeah Nah came to the Slacks (Scott Armstrong) when listening to our brothers and sisters interact and the lyric springs from the interesting and unique way KiwIs talk to each other.
It takes a handful of well used New Zealand phrases and words in English and Te Reo to pull the proverbial out of the way we communicate. The song also hints at a coming change in our thinking and culture that is overdue and will be for the good.
Light hearted, fun and irreverent ; Yeah Nah is a follow up in the same vein as our
last single 'Big Aroha'
It builds on the concept Kiwitanga; which is a loose term coined to paint a picture of what the unification of our Bicultural roots might look and sound like in a future Aotearoa.
The modus operandi for any Slacks video is to get people together, and turn the day into something of a celebration that tends to run twice as long as the video shoot itself.
For Yeah Nah, a gorgeous Waitangi Day sun was smiling down on us and with cold bevvies in hand and some spare ribs for the BBQ, we set about capturing the song in visual form.
Given the nature of the song lyric, it seemed appropriate to chuck in some home-grown beach cricket and touch rugby as well as an early evening performance on the deck of the New Plymouth Yacht Club, all of which made it into the final cut.
On top of the day-shoot at Ngamotu beach, the band members and central characters in the video (Dinnie and Pierre) spent a second day cruising around Back Beach and Lake Rotomanu in New Plymouth. theSlacks were rolling in the very same car that was used in OMC’s “How Bizarre” and rather chuffed to be doing so.
Much of the inspiration for the song and video comes from the nature of the band. theSlacks was conceived at the tail end of the grunge-y, whinge-y 1990’s and the focus was firmly on having a good time and not taking the band too seriously. Forget about hating on your mum and dad and throwing stones at billboards; try instead stoking a chilly bin to the brim and high-fiving your neighbour as you re-string your old acoustic guitar.
The resulting video is bright and sunny, full of smiles and all the other things we like to surround ourselves with.