According to the Ghostmilk Studios website, Wintersleep’s first video from their first self-titled full-length is about “a troubled young bride as she toils with her inner demons…creepy.” The guys shot the surreal video in Toronto in one long, 16-hour day with Ghostmilk’s Sean Wainsteim, part of the same studio that helped shoot the award winning “Float On” by Modest Mouse. It involved the band wearing dapper sweaters and playing decades-old instruments. “We showed up at the set and it was like, ‘Check it out,’ says Wintersleep guitarist Tim D’Eon. “He wanted us to look old, like from the ’50s.” Visually, the video fits the sound of the group perfectly with the vivid digital colours and off-kilter winter scene animations. The video received good rotation on MuchMusic, coincidentally weeks before the release of the band’s second album release, propelling Wintersleep to the national spotlight and one of several Best of Music wins. “They still play it,” D’Eon says. “Every once in awhile, someone will type something on the band message board saying, ‘Hey, I just saw the video.’ My mom told me she saw it on TV for the first time the other day.”
Runners-up: Jimmy Swift Band, “Two Hands on the Wheel,” Matt Mays, “City of Lakes”
