Video premiere: Kate Clover, ‘Tearjerker’

Kevin Bronson on June 10th, 2021

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Kate Clover taps into the energy of first-wave punk on her debut EP, “Channel Zero,” which is 13 too-short minutes of buzzing guitars, propulsive rhythms and fierce vocals — a blast from the past, sounding very present.

Clover plumbs history, too, in the wild new video for “Tearjerker,” the third song on the EP. It’s a caper/double-cross story transpiring in the desert with a stylish all-female cast.

“We wanted to make a desert noir-style video inspired by Hitchcock and ‘Straight to Hell,’” Clover says. “Our goal was to challenge typical casting stereotypes and tell a simple revenge story. It was interesting to cast females in predominantly male roles, because it ultimately didn’t affect the outcome at all in terms of telling the story. What I learned from that was that if the actor had the essence of the character that was all that mattered and our friends nailed it. The bonus for me was I got to create my dream girl-gang in the process. It was so much fun and happened so fast that it almost felt like a dream.

“After being cooped up in Los Angeles all year, the desert was a welcome escape. It felt magical.”

Directed by Rebecca Knox (“Orange Is the New Black”) and filmed by John FitzPatrick and James Strohal, the shoot came together quickly. “The DP called Rebecca letting her know he would be in town and that they should make something,” Clover says. “Within a week we wrote the treatment, and by the following weekend we were out in Joshua Tree filming.”

As for “Tearjerker,” “It’s about being close to someone who hurts you. It’s about betrayal and revenge. Love can be both beautiful and destructive.”

The EP, produced by Brandon Welchez (Crocodiles), came out in May on SongVest Records.

||| Watch: The video for “Tearjerker”