Hollerado Surprised by 'Americanarama' Video's Viral Success

Hollerado's new video for 'Americanarama' was just released two days ago but has already accumulated well over 55,000 (300,000) hits on YouTube, a pleasant surprise for the band.

"It literally took us two full days of rehearsal to get it right but the cast and crew took even longer," guitarist Menno Versteeg tells Spinner. "We wanted something quirky and low budget but still fun and ambitious and director Greg Jardin nailed it."

Dubbed "the Human 8-bit Video," the clip is a one-take reenactment of games like 'Pong' and 'Space Invaders' on a six-by-four grid as the band plays at the forefront. Versteeg admits that the band was "completely skeptical" at first when presented with the video treatment.

"We were like, 'There's no way this is possible. Let's try!" he says. "That was the most intriguing thing. A lot of the things we do, on paper we think there's no way this is going to work out but that is why we want to try, so we were expecting total failure and it was a nice surprise to see us pulling it off.";



The YouTube description asks fans to share the link in order to help "this video up to ONE BEEEELION views." While it's not there yet, many have already made the comparison between Hollerado and another famous four-piece known for their innovative music videos.

"If people are saying we're the next OK Go but they're going to keep looking at it, then that's fantastic," says Versteeg. "If they want to say we're the next Fred Penner and still keep looking at it, then I don't really care as long as they're listening to our music. You can't deny the similarities of this video but I don't think our music is similar."

The band isn't short of gimmicky projects though, from selling their latest album 'Record in a Bag in a Ziploc' with confetti to playing an entire show in Winnipeg out of air instruments alongside an iPod.

"We have a ton of gimmicks. We're not going to deny that at all," explains Versteeg. "Why do something that's already been done before?"

Next on the band's to-do list? Hot sauce. "We made our first batch and it was absolutely horrible," Versteeg says. "But we're going to try it again and release it now. It's delicious!"