Premiere: You Beauty reignite an old fav with a fan-made video for Off The Bench

New South Wales/Victorian punk group You Beauty are an old favourite amongst the Australian live music space, a band that was once synonymous with the country's eclectic and fierce-growing rock-ier-leaning music world. Their 2014-released debut album Jersey Flegg was somewhat of a cult-favourite - a controlled DIY chaos that spans ten songs of driving punk and heavy-handed rock - and their sophomore album Illwhacka doubled down on their charm with its release a year later, solidifying the group as heroes and early establishes of a now-thriving space.

In the five years since, the group have kept largely quiet, doing a few returning shows here and there while teasing a forthcoming new record on their social media as recent as late-2019; "The boys are back in town," the wrote as a caption to a couple of pictures taken during the band's recording sessions.

In 2020, however, they're re-entering the main-frame with a bit of a gift that reignites an old favourite amongst their discography, with one super-fan of the group - Melbourne's Joe Winkler - spending his coronavirus-fuelled downtime animating an 8-bit video to the band's track Off The Bench. It's one of the group's most adored tracks, closing off their debut album in a style that today, gets reinvigorated through the help of a fan; it really goes to show that You Beauty have crafted a dedicated audience around them, and their 'cult-like' following isn't just a couple of words chucked onto their name to drum up a sense of hype or whatever else.

"YB fans have always tried harder than us..." the group say. "We only really play when people ask us, the crowd always remembers the lyrics better than I do, so it makes sense that when we're being lazy and not releasing anything new for the moment that a die-hard just creates something new for us! What a horny legend... keeping those royalties pumping."

As Joe explains, the video came about after his plans for the year fell through (which really, is something everyone could emphasise with). However, while others got to sourdough baking and arts, Joe dedicated his time to celebrating one of his favourite bands. "I'd always thought it would be cool to make a series of short films mirroring the album, but it seemed like a bit too large of an undertaking with uni going on. Then at the start of this year, I deferred my course for a year to travel, but when that all fell apart I found myself with lots of free time (and time stuck indoors)," he mentions.

"Animation is never something I've been particularly good at, but the ability to control exactly what's in the frame regardless of budget is a good way to realise some more ambitious ideas - especially working with that 8-bit retro video game style. I've always wanted to make music videos so it felt like a good project. I chose Off The Bench specifically because it was pretty short, had a clear premise, and was one of my favourite songs on the album. Some songs it's just really easy to visualise a narrative, you know?

"Anyway, when the end product turned out to be basically what I'd aimed for, I figured I'd send it off on the off chance the band or whoever saw it."

Take a dive into the clip below:

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