Text by Gaby Deimeke
NYC-based pop trio nxtime is finally getting to release a new song and music video this week after what feels like months of quarantine. Nate Christensen, guitarist, Ray Rubio, lead singer, and Imhotep Williams, drummer for the band, have all been patiently waiting for this record to be finished.
It feels like an extension of their name, which is a shortened version of the phrase “see you next time,” something they came up with during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 when friends and family were separating to quarantine and they weren’t sure when they would see each other again.
They held a pre-release Zoom call to announce the new song to fans and play the music video. The song is called Bob Ross, and it’s based on the idea of not being able to eloquently tell someone that you love and care about them “and wishing you could say something as well as Bob Ross paints,” said Ray.
The song is a soft-spoken but catchy tune, with lead singer Ray crooning in the chorus various clever references to the 80’s painter: “Why can’t I just paint the scene like Bob Ross?” and in the second verse: “You’re my work of art.” This is their third music video, and it holds a similar surrealist quality as their fun disco-ball themed video for A Boy Named Johnny Gates and their debut single Future Love, which includes space scenes and an inflatable dinosaur.
In the video, the boys alternate from trying their hand at painting a canvas to performing inside a Bob Ross painting, with snow flying by and winter evergreen trees in the background. Then a magic disco ball abducts them and they have a quick vintage jam session in space.
Nate mentioned, “We always get so jazzed when the bridge comes in this song. You’re just hit with crazy synth layers and a funky guitar line, and you’re like “woah” but it flows with the rest of the song perfectly.” You can hear a clip of Bob Ross talking during the bridge of the song. He says, “We don’t make mistakes. We have happy accidents.”
The video closes with the music halting us back to reality. The greenscreen backdrop pulls us back to the studio where they are recording and the boys ask each other how that take went, just in case you needed to be reminded that they didn’t actually get to go to space.
When asked about the concept for the video being in a Bob Ross painting, Nate said, “Bob Ross was such a prolific painter, we instantly thought about the imagery of his artwork, and the peace it gives to him and to his viewers. We wanted to capture that aesthetic.”Of course, there were some challenges along the way to creating the video. They had never worked with a green screen before, and didn’t realize the black X’s for tracking needed to be removed before they filmed, so those had to be keyed out individually in every frame.
“Biggest challenge: editing. The majority of our time was spent working with the green screen in post, which we had never done before! Overall the filming process was the best time, we have an amazing team.” noted Ray.
Nxtime knows how hard things are for folks right now, and they’ve decided to donate the proceeds from this song. “Bob Ross made donations throughout his life to St. Judes Hospital, and things right now are rough for so many people, so this seemed like the thing Bob would’ve wanted us to do.”
They also just finished writing a new album. “It was a relatively quick process and we just started the recording process, we have some newer songs we are working on that might sneak onto the album…who knows!” quipiped Ray.
Nate added, “All we want is to make people smile and dance. Put as many good vibes into the world as we can.”The music video for Bob Ross dropped today and you can check it out right here. Stay tuned for future singles, livestream shows and check nxtime out on Instagram at @nxtimemusic.
