Interview: JATK pulls back the curtain on the "Don't Come Knockin'" music video
Now Playing: Recovered VHS footage of the Boston project’s lost TV appearance on ‘The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour’
BANDCAMP . SPOTIFY . INSTAGRAM . YOUTUBE . FACEBOOK . TWITTER . AUDIOMACK . MULTI-LINK
Photo Credit: Aneleise Ruggles
Contact michael@knyvet.com or jatktheband@gmail.com for more information.
To celebrate the release of their newest single, JATK has unearthed long-lost archival performance footage for “Don’t Come Knockin’s” official music video. It’s pulled from a way-back live appearance on the unfortunately forgotten Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour, recorded at a time when late-night television hosts were snippy, the fashion screamed in kaleidoscopic colors, and super-catchy, riff-laden power-pop was probably just called something else entirely. Pulled off old dusty VHS tapes and uploaded to YouTube, JATK’s “Don’t Come Knockin’” video entered the digital age and debuted on the internet this month.
But first, a little backstory on the track: “Don’t Come Knockin’” was first officially released last year as a b-side and sister song to “Don’t Call,” a single that appeared on JATK’s acclaimed debut album Shut Up and Be the Light, and now the Boston band led by songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Jatkola is set to deliver a new EP of companion tracks led by the reborn “Don’t Come Knockin’”. If Shut Up and Be the Light was JATK’s center core, this wave of upcoming releases — videos, EPs, merchandise — are the new planets and moons that orbit it.
And the first release with a gravitational pull is the “Don’t Come Knockin’” music video, where JATK recovered and rehabilitated some found footage of the band’s never-before-seen late-night TV appearance on The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour. Performing live through a pure sign-of-the-times lens and decked out in yellow turtlenecks, sassy vests, and smiles galore, the result is one of the most fuzzy, glittery, and creative videos of the year, produced by Jatkola and directed by longtime collaborator JP DiSciscio. Shaun Clarke, another longtime JATK collaborator who directed the band’s previous “Conscious Wonder” video, served as director of photography. Art direction was led by Amber Primm, who designed, constructed, painted, and installed set pieces and doors (built DIY-style out of foam) and managed details all the way down to the position of Dick's coffee mug.
Even the audio, captured using period-specific mics and overseen by Ross Matthei, adds an authentic aural flair, while the video was preserved through resurrected old TV cameras. Both approaches only serve to further blur the lines from where — and when — this footage actually came from.
Now that the video is public, Jatkola pulls back the curtain on the making of the video, and goes into all the little details that brought this undertaking to life.
Knyvet: Right off the jump, what is “Don’t Come Knockin’” all about?
JATK: “Don’t Come Knockin’” is one of my personal favorite JATK songs, but it didn’t quite fit in with the sequence and flow of the album, which is why it ended up as a B-side to “Don’t Call” instead. Actually, what happened when we put those two tracks as a maxi-single is that it felt more like a double A-side release because we got a lot of great feedback on “Don’t Come Knockin’” too — including from our video director JP DiSciscio, who expressed interest in doing a video for the song. It just felt like it needed its own place to shine. This video project has been the perfect opportunity for that.It’s a song about not feeling like the other person is “for real” in a relationship — that you’re in a non-reciprocal situation, a one-sided deal, they’re playing games while you’re being sincere, that sort of thing. Now you’re fed up with their lack of fortitude and you’re like, “If you’re gonna knock, you’d better be there when I open the door!” I find this dynamic way more in friendships than in romantic relationships, but it’s meant to be taken any way the listener desires.
It is fully inspired by old school 60s R&B production that you’d hear on a Temptations or Smokey Robinson record back in the day.I also love songs that are really literal. I like songs with sound effects — like when there’s a car sound in a song because you’re singing about a car. It’s just fun. Hence, the knock-knock sound effect in the refrain.
How is it a companion track to recent single “Don’t Call”?
“Don’t Come Knockin’” and “Don’t Call” are sister songs, totally cut from the same cloth and sharing the same musical DNA. They are both based in R&B. Lyrically, they tackle similar themes. Actually, “Don’t Come Knockin’” came first and I feel like I couldn’t have written “Don’t Call” if I hadn’t written “Don’t Come Knockin’” first. They will forever be linked to me.What inspired the theme of the video?Funny enough, our director JP DiSciscio and I started working out ideas for two videos around the same time - “Don’t Call” and “Don’t Come Knockin’” — so that’s another way the two songs are linked.
When we landed on the concept of the band performing “Don’t Come Knockin’” on The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour, we knew it had legs. It all started because I really wanted to do a video with a live band performing, but also a very literal and of-a-certain-time visual concept. The song is about knocking on a door, so let’s put a bunch of doors up in a studio and just perform around them.
It was inspired by The Doors’ infamous performance of “Light My Fire” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. This is the one where Jim Morrison sang “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” on national TV when he was specifically told not to and they were subsequently banned from the show forever. It’s a famous story. Who knows what parts are true. Amongst all that drama, I always thought it was funny that the set design for that performance was the band (The Doors) performing in front of a bunch of... doors! Like, how long did it take for someone to think that one up? It seems like something the band wasn’t consulted on either, which I love. I’m sure they would’ve wanted to do something a little less... literal. So, I just love all of that and wanted to tap into the weird energy there.
It’s kind of a corny, simple concept on the surface, and probably not “cool enough” for some, but The Doors performance actually looks pretty great at the same time — all the colored doors hanging around and this late-‘60s/early-‘70s color scheme going on. Anyway, we took that whole “performing on a late night show” idea and kept expanding on it, referencing other late night talk shows, hosts, performances, sets, design elements, etc. We went down the rabbit hole. That’s when The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour was born.
However, there’s an added layer of this being a found tape. It’s not a crisp, 4K remastered version from the network archives or something. We wanted this to feel like a forgotten show, taped over in disjointed parts on a dusty VHS tape that’s been sitting in someone’s basement for decades. And yes, we really bounced this onto old, dusty VHS tapes when editing. We shot it on old cameras. We did not use filters, presets, or digital intervention to get this look. It’s the real deal.
This whole project is a big melting pot of references to shows from that era and we did our homework.
The wardrobe, color scheme, and band performance were all inspired by a proto-music video The Animals shot for “House of the Rising Sun” in 1964. It’s just a beautiful, simple video of them playing in a TV or film studio, very minimal set, yellow color scheme, and doing a very choreographed walk around the studio. Even though we took quite a few liberties and developed it into our own thing, the basis for our performance is all from that Animals footage.
The show’s logo and name are a nod to The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which aired on CBS from 1968-1972.
Dick Griffin’s desk is modeled after Steve Allen and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show desks.
Dick’s wardrobe and personality are loosely inspired by Rupert Pupkin, Robert De Niro’s character from The King of Comedy, but Dick has his own flair too.
The over-the-top poses he does are based on those by comedian Adam Keith, who appeared on The Merv Griffin Show in 1969 doing a similar bit.
Dick Griffin’s Uncle Sam’s cereal commercial at the end of the piece is a shot-for-shot, almost word-for-word recreation of a live commercial Ed McMahon shot for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes on The Tonight Show. They used to do all sorts of live commercials on those shows back in the day. We just copied exactly what he said, what he did, and how the camera moved for our version. Just a few minor adjustments and it turned into Dick Griffin talking about Uncle Sam’s Natural Laxative Cereal (which is a real cereal, by the way).
The “stay tuned” title card is an adaptation of the title cards Merv Griffin used to have between commercials on his show, only his said “Merv” instead of “Dick.”
We even had the Merv Griffin theme song in as placeholder music for almost the entire time we were editing this video, which was a long time... it took months to edit this thing. My appreciation of all things Merv is only enriched by my affinity for the Seinfeld episode where Kramer finds the old Merv Griffin set in a dumpster, moves it into his apartment, and starts interviewing the people who come to visit him.
If you look closely, you’ll see there’s a large stack of donuts on the table in front of the guest’s chair. That’s a nod to two things — (1) the fact that the JATK album & maxi-single cover artwork is filled with photographs of damaged donuts and we’re determined to plant donuts in every music video we do, and (2) Primetime Glick featuring Jiminy Glick. This character has long been one of my favorite comedic characters of all time. Martin Short as Jiminy Glick knocks it out of the park with his satire of talk shows, tv personalities, interviews, you name it. Perhaps my favorite of his gags (literally and figuratively) is the pile of donuts he keeps out for he and his guests to munch on during segments. He inevitably ends up shoving them into his mouth and starts choking in front of these celebrities, much to their surprise, horror, and delight... it’s, as he would say, WONDERFUL! JUST WONDERFUL! And something we had to include in this video.
We generally like these shows that are more variety shows instead of a host talking to two celebrity guests, and then a musician comes on at the end, as is often the formula these days. The old shows are way more kooky and their diversity made everything a little more special.
We shot way more of The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour than is in the video. It’s a purposely choppy edit of some of the best parts. We probably have enough footage for a 20 or 30 minute piece... I’m just not sure how good it would be. So we kept it relatively tight. This is supposed to be a music video, after all.
Let’s talk about the band!
I’m really glad we got to shoot this as a band. I’ve put myself forward as the face of JATK, but it’s always been a collaborative project, so I really wanted this video to showcase that. All of the people in this band worked on the album with me and/or have been some of my closest musical collaborators over the years, so it was really meaningful to have them all be a part of this. The common denominator is that we all played in my old band The Bynars at some point. Kiel Szivos plays bass in the JATK live band now. D. Orxata is a dear friend, bandmate in our duo FBGM, and can be heard on many JATK recordings. Mike Champ took a break from being a doctor living the good life up in Vermont to sit in on drums. It was a really nice reunion for all of us, but also a fine sampling of people who are a part of the JATK world.
How does the merch line tie into the video, and why was that created as a companion piece to the rollout?
We set out to create a music video and we ended up creating an entire world for Dick Griffin to live in. It got to the point where we really wanted to keep filming full episodes of his TV show just for fun. I designed a show logo and we got one mug printed for Dick to have on his desk. We figured why not get a bunch of these and sell them so people can own a little piece of this world we lovingly created. We also got some buttons made with the logo, and perhaps the pièce de résistance — we’re dubbing VHS copies of our appearance on the show! You’ll have the 6-minute, 14-second video you see on YouTube, but each copy will be a little different. Maybe there will be some extra JATK or Dick Griffin content on there. We’re taping over already used cassettes, so who knows what you’ll see!
What was the most fun thing / unfun thing about shooting this video?
This video was so fun to create, but we really did everything from scratch and honored the technology, look, and vibe of the period. Nothing is phoned in or left up to chance and every detail is accounted for. We could’ve shot this in HD and it would’ve looked incredible, but we needed to honor the time. We shot it on really old, bulky, finicky cameras so we could get the look and feel of an authentic TV show from the ‘60s/’70s. By modern standards, things just looked kinda bad back then! And when you record it all onto a VHS cassette, it looks even worse! However, it was the best technology of the time, so therein lies the most fun and unfun parts about the project. We love the charm and aesthetic of it all. We tried to honor that as much as possible. Our director JP said it best when he delivered the final version: Never have filmmakers worked so hard to make something look so crappy.
Our Art Director, Amber Primm, besides being one of my favorite people to work with ever, is the mastermind behind all our set design — from designing, constructing, painting, and installing the set pieces and doors (which we all chipped in to build ourselves out of foam) to the little details like the flower vase on the table behind the band or the position of Dick’s coffee mug on his desk. Her hand is in everything and she really made it look truly awesome... and then we went and made it look truly crappy!
Contact michael@knyvet.com or jatktheband@gmail.com for more information.