The Mynabirds, 'What We Gained in the Fire' -- Video Premiere

Posted on Nov 19th 2010 2:01PM by Dan Reilly
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Lisa Boggs

Countless bands have filmed retro-looking videos, but the Mynabirds have done something much more personal for their soulful, heart-wrenching 'What We Gained in the Fire' clip.

As singer Laura Burhenn tells Spinner, the original concept was to film 8mm-style vignettes that brought the artwork from the band's debut album, 'What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood,' to life. After filming some initial footage with director Rob Walters, Burhenn then discovered that her family had boxes of 8mm home movies sitting in their basement, unwatched for decades. Once she saw the movies, she knew it was the perfect fit.

"Once we'd shot the new footage of me (everything filmed in snowy fields and wooded hills around Omaha last winter) and Rob began layering my family's footage into the mix, I was blown away with the story it told," Burhenn says. "Here was this entire family history I'd never seen: people I'd heard about but never knew, my great-grandparents in black and white, my grandparents as young lovers, my dad and his brother as babies -- turning into young men before the camera's eye. I was getting a window into this story I'd only imagined. Where were they always heading in their Sunday best?"

"To me, the most poignant part of the story is that my dad's brother, who is featured in the family footage, committed suicide when I was just a baby," she continues. "I never knew him, but here I am now, looking out from this reflective winter season (when the air is clearer and the sky isn't cluttered with a thatch of leaves), through these filmed records, trying to find him. I think we all have similar experiences."

With Watler's editing, the video becomes a metaphor for lost memories, layers of consciousness and how each of us deal with our past. "For me, it gets to the heart of the song: 'I've got something I don't want to lose, but I'm learning to let go of you. What we lose in the fire we gain in the flood. What we lose in the fire is never gone,'" Burhenn says.

Check out the premiere of 'What We Gained in the Fire' below.