Rooney's Robert Schwartzman Premieres 'Funny Money' Video -- Exclusive

We've heard plenty of songs about the financial crisis, with singers as rich as Bruce Springsteen declaring their allegiance to the working man. Rarely have we heard a song about the recession from the point of someone who's lost money in the stock market. That's where Rooney frontman Robert Schwartzman comes in: His solo song, "Funny Money," represents that other side with perspective, not in the "Oh I'm so wealthy and now I'm sad" way.

"I wrote 'Funny Money' around the time the U.S. went into a recession. I had some investments that were struggling and I wanted to use the experience for something positive, to create something new," Schwartzman tells Spinner. "For me, writing music is an escape, it's my therapy and I'm usually inspired by unhappy events, i.e. a breakup, loss, longing, stock market crisis, etc. I like creating something uplifting and positive from a negative experience, or with a fun energy, but with lyrical contrast. It's part of the healing process. So, after my investments tanked, I thought, 'Well, it goes up, it goes down, I can't let this bring me down, it's just Funny Money.'

"The music video was directed by the amazing, the wonderful Marcus Herring. We've made a few Rooney music videos together and he created the visual effects for my SoloBob music video. We hit it off right away. Marcus is a one-man show (but this was a group effort with the help of some excellent animators and our DP, Matthew Lloyd). The footage had been laying around for a while. We shot it back in 2009, but we got busy working on those Rooney videos together. We dug up the footage later and started adding in the character animation little by little. We wanted to make a fun video, that played off the song well, and would challenge us. I've always loved animation in music videos, the hand-drawn, classic style. I'm very happy this video is out and it's exciting to see all of our efforts and ideas become a reality."

Check out Robert Schwartzman's "Funny Money" video below, and pick up his debut solo album, Double Capricorn, now.