FRIENDLY RICH Shares a Raw, Real and Face-Melting Video for His Album ’We Are All Terrorists’ [Premiere]

To say that Friendly Rich is an eclectic musician would be an understatement. Rich is primarily a composer, perhaps best known for his work creating the audio elements of three seasons of MTV’s The Tom Green Show, that in its time, was one of the most popular television shows among young people in both the United States and Canada. Since then, the Brampton, Ontario-born Rich has primarily recorded his own brand of outsider music for his record label The Pumpkin Pie Corporation. Also a great student of music, Rich is currently working towards his Ph.D. in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.

Lately, Rich has been touring the world along with his modern music ensemble, The Lollipop People, a group who deliver a live music show that is not only unforgettable but unlike anything you have ever before seen. The Lollipop People have been instrumental in Rich not only really finding his stride as a live performer, but also collaboratively on his new, thirteenth studio record We Are All Terrorists. Released last month as a double album, We Are All Terrorists (stream/purchase now) brings together collaborators from many different genres and musical backgrounds such as Kevin Breit and Hawksley Workman, Christine Duncan and The Element Choir, The Layrite Boys, and the Woodshed Orchestra, just to name a few. As the album title hints, We Are All Terrorists deals with some dark subject matter, including its predominant theme of terrorism. In addition, issues related to death, divorce, depression, and religion are also covered, making this the opposite of your holiday feel-good record.

Sit down and relax for while Friendly Rich eats away at your brain with the debut of his new video supplement to his new record, We Are All Terrorists:

To help support the release of We Are All Terrorists, Rich wouldn’t have it any other way except to promote the album in his own, original inventive manner. That’s why he has released a full, nearly one-hour visual accompaniment to the album that’s created out of special time-lapse footage that fully complements the record’s dreary subject matter. The film begins by showing you the full album cover, but as time goes by, you start to slowly see the image decaying to the point where it becomes unrecognizable. It illustrates the slow process of how everything in the living world gradually wastes away. Truly original, this is a work of art like no other you will ever witness.

Commenting on the video, director Martin MacPherson stated, “I had been wanting to do a project like this for a while but always knew it would be a bit of a gamble as to whether it would turn out or not. Thankfully Rich was on board from the get-go and the chaotic, unexpectedly gross results from the time-lapse footage match the album pretty well. Having the sun melt the skin off of Rich’s edible corpse was a pretty precarious situation. I wanted to see more wildlife in the shots to I cut a hole in the back of Rich’s head and filled it full of birdseed. Unfortunately, the birds thought the whole situation was a bit much and they didn’t come close.

I spent two and a half days in a tent babysitting four cameras as they captured images of edible Rich’s melting skin. It was a lot more tedious than I had expected but It was nice to be outside that long and not in front of a computer. I also used the time-lapse function on my phone to grab some images of the sky from time to time. I initially only planned on using on camera and having just the one angle the entire time. I decided to get a few more angles for safety and when I saw the results I knew I had to make the project something more than what was initially planned.”

If you love Star Trek, you’ll love this video for “Sausage Samba,” from the album Bountiful:

If you are feeling like a dark start to your festive December, then Friendly Rich and his team of collaborators have got the recipe just for you!

We Are All Terrorists Tracklisting:

01. House of Commons
02. Terror Variation One
03. Lose My Mind
04. Terror Variation Two
05. God is Dead
06. Terror Variation Three
07. Donkey Day
08. Terror Variation Four
09. Little Dead Birds
10. Terror Variation Five
11. The Matador Part 1
12. Terror Variation Six
13. The Farmer & The Smell
14. Y2K
15. Le Malaise
16. Low, Low, Low
17. Terror Variation Seven
18. Don’t Trust Nobody
19. The Matador Part 2
20. Hey Buddy!
21. We Are All Terrorists
22. E-A-I-O-U