Vid Pick: ALKE – All Night

The Southern California-based duo of Audrey Karrasch and Jameson Flood – better known as ALKE – have been putting out great pop music for years now, and their latest will have you groovin’ “All Night.”

“All Night” is a throwback of sorts, as it’s heavily influenced by ‘80s pop, and has a very cool retro feel.

I caught up with Karrasch to find out more about the song, the hospital themed video, and the brutal casting process her teddy bear had to go through.

“All Night” has a distinct ‘80s vibe. With that in mind, what’s been inspiring you recently, and what kind of equipment have you been working with to create this retro sound?

We’ve always been drawn to ‘80s/‘90s pop and R&B, and we have a lot of love for Peter Gabriel and Lionel Richie.

I think what really tied the song, and overall vibe, together was the percussion and guitar. The song started out with our good friend, and talented producer, Brian West, and from there Jameson was full of ideas.

We recorded all of this in a bedroom, except for the guitar and drums. We had our buddies Nick Ineck and Aaron Swart come through Clear Lake Recording Studio and play drums and percussion for us and they both delivered the vibes. After the percussion was there it all just felt right.

What inspired the lyrical content of “All Night,” and do you have a favorite set of lyrics from the song?

I think one of the happiest stages of any relationship is the beginning, and I wanted to convey that in the lyrics – specifically, what it’s like to fall for someone that’s far away.

The distance gets your hopes up, and allows your imagination to run wild. It’s like when you’re a kid and you have a crush on someone. You haven’t even had your first kiss, or even know how to kiss, but all you can do is imagine how perfect your world is with them in it.

My favorite lyrics are definitely the pre-chorus – “Sinking in deep blue, lost in my bedroom, world just passes by. I wake up for the first time.”

When you experience love for the first time everything feels brand new. Your senses change. You lose sense of time. It’s confusing, and wonderful.

How did a hospital end up the setting for the video?

We had a couple of ideas for this video that all somehow involved a hospital.

At first we thought it would be fun for me to actually escape, and roller skate to the nearest skating rink. Then I remembered I am awful at roller skating.

We had this idea for a while, but we never thought we’d get the opportunity to actually shoot it. Almost a week after we put it out of our minds we were given the opportunity to shoot any video we wanted, but it had to be done within a week's time. The director, Logan Meis, was in L.A. working on a project, and last minute was able to book a day with us. This was exciting, however I had zero clue about finding a hospital to shoot in.

After some solid googling I found a hospital set in Anaheim that just so happened to have a cancellation for the exact day we needed. The rest is history.

Is “All Night” a standalone single, or is an album, or EP on the way?

For now it’s a standalone single. Because we’re independent we find it makes more sense for us to release singles before we can fund an album.

Finally, we need the backstory on the teddy bear! Where is he from? Who does he belong to? What was his casting process like? Did he knock his audition out of the park?

The bear’s role is funny because leading up to the shoot date I knew the bear would be crucial, so much so that I completely forgot to pick up the bear on the way to the shoot. Jameson came to the rescue and cruised over to Walgreens, because thank God for Valentine’s Day, bears were in high demand.

I needed the bear to be very plain – no bows, or hats – and he needed to look a little rough. I felt awful as I was doing this, but I had to run over him with my car a couple of times. My guilt allowed me to really bond with the bear after crushing him with my car, so we were comfortable shooting together.

For more ALKE, head on over to ALKEmusic.com