The Blakes, 'Narwhal' -- Video Premiere

Grief is nothing new for the Blakes. In fact, their album Art of Losses chronicles the journey the trio took to deal with the sadness resulting from the loss of family and friends over the course of recording.

The band's "Narwhal" video embraces this anguish in the form of a dark ode to street youth. The Blakes had previously worked with director Travis Gutiérrez Senger, who says the group wanted to try something different this time around.

"I spent a lot of time researching homeless teens for another project, so I was familiar with the world," Senger tells Spinner. "For the treatment, I pulled from a young couple I had met, a transgender boy and his girlfriend, who were runaways in love.

"We shot in Bushwick, [in Brooklyn, N.Y.] around Grand/Morgan where there is this beautiful urban decay. A lot of folks in the neighborhood ended up participating in the project. We also had a lot of kids from the LGBT community on set and in the video, which was great and helped give it an authentic quality."

Conveying the video's complex storyline required the right actor for each part.

"The video also features Chaske Spencer ("Twilight Saga") who is in my upcoming feature film 'Desert Cathedral' and is a talent on the rise," Senger says. "Like myself, he loved the song and the album and felt like a video about a diverse group of kids living in squalor would be compelling. I wrote the treatment more like a short film and built his character –- a father who has come to get his daughter out of this situation –- specifically for him. He put in a great performance, as did all the kids in the video."