By Dali Carmichael
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGhTD83I2I&feature=c4-overview&list=UUecv2gHD9XhdTuSeVty761g[/youtube]
A local musical duo recently filmed their debut music video on Algonquin campus.
Fancy as Fawk released a music video for their Royals Mash Up, which features covers of music snippets by Lorde, Imagine Dragons and Katy Perry.
The women are proud to announce that they do their own stunts, which was evident after watching them tour the Woodroffe campus parking lot in the rain, while singing and playing guitar on a rolling couch.
Colin Mills, program coordinator of music industry arts at Algonquin and friend of the band, was happy to lend out one of the school’s studios to FAF to shoot their video.
“Laurie called me up and asked if she could use the studio to do some filming,” said Mills. “It turned out really well.”
The mash-up is hopefully the first of many for Jenna Taggart, 21, and Laurie Stewart, 31, who created Fancy as Fawk as a side project to their full-time band The Ecstatic, formerly Apocalypstic.
“It’s just to have fun, tide us over and bring the excitement back in, because when you’re in a working band like The Ecstatic it gets stressful at times,” said Stewart.
Stewart explained that The Ecstatic was currently on a short hiatus. The decision to take a break from the band came after her former all-girl band Apocalypstic competed in Live 88.5’s Big Money Shot Contest.
“Competing in a stressful environment like that really causes people to question why they do music in the first place,” said Stewart. “It really made me evaluate what I wanted out of the band scenario.”
While they were proud to have placed fourth out of some 120 competitors, the contest took its toll on the band, leading to its current incarnation as The Ecstatic.
“We recorded an EP and basically, only Jenna and I and our synth player participated in the making of that record from Apocalypstic,” said Stewart. “We just decided that the sound of the new record was such a departure from the style that it used to be that we started a new project.”
The break also came at the perfect time for Stewart, who recently enrolled in Algonquin’s new women into electrical engineering technology program.
“I have a bachelor of science biomed (degree) from Carleton and I’m back to do engineering,” she said. “I’m doing this so that I have a way to fund my projects with music.”
Taggart, one of Stewart’s more recent collaborators, shares her passion.
“I’ve been doing (music) my whole life. I’m 21 now, I started when I was five, so it’s been a long time. It’s just my main focus. It’s all I do, it’s what I live for,” said Taggart.
Now that Stewart has gotten back into the rhythm of balancing school life and music, fans can expect a resurgence of activity from both The Ecstatic and Fancy as Fawk.
In the near future, The Ecstatic will be recording new material as a follow up to their latest EP released in June. They will also be opening for The Heathers, whom they deem, “Ireland’s answer to Tegan and Sara,” at Zaphod’s on Oct. 25.
As for their side project, the duo assured that they were working on some top-secret material, covering one of Canada’s top alternative bands. They hope to have a new video out before the new year.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1IFd5PiQyQ&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]