Music Makers

behind the video with Buds. ("Time Well Spent")

I find the "compilation of clips shot while going on tour" style of music video to be so poignant. Besides providing evidence of life lived in person—going to places, hanging out with people, being Outside—there's an intentionality and commitment that comes with making such a montage. You have to keep doing it: keep pulling out the camera, keep logging the moments, keep building until there's something worth putting out there. I guess the montage format of music video represents the work of being in a band, really. Nothing happens unless you keep grinding, and then you get to look back and see something beautiful.

Such is the vibe of the music video for "Time Well Spent" by Buds., a punk band from the English port city of Southampton. The video shows the band traveling as far as far as the United States (for the Gainesville, Florida punk festival The Fest) and Germany for shows, and opening for acts like Touché Amoré and Creeper. It's a wonderful blur of stage lights, cramped pubs, and bandmates throwing down with all their might.

Buds. guitarist/singer Dan Wilson-Stone who edited the video, summed the song up: "This life is crazy sometimes and it takes you to crazy places and you make life long friends. I wanted to write a song that reminded me of the good times and specifically why I drove around in a beat up Renault Scenic for years playing shows. Sadly that car got written off last year but it’ll forever be immortalised in the opening lines of this song!”

I asked Wilson-Stone a couple of questions about the video...below...answers! Also it's in the top slot of I Enjoy Music Videos right nyyyowww...

[Molly Mary O'Brien] I love these kind of slice-of-life documentary videos where you see how much work the band is doing and how much fun they're having. What inspired you to pair "Time Well Spent" with this kind of video?

[Dan Wilson-Stone] I think for this one, the obvious answer for what to do was the best one. We thought a song about the wild and crazy life of being any creative needed to celebrate all the cool things we've done and places we've been. We've been filming our sets since we got back to playing shows after Covid. I have been using footage to make reels so we had something to share frequently on socials but I have always wanted to give making a full length music video a go. I got a decent camera a couple years back and have had a backlog of things to make something for ages. The footage I believe dates back as far as 2024 and uses stuff also capture by our good friends Lotte Johnson, Nikhil Pillay and Chris Mccallum.

Are there any good backstories to any of the clips / shows featured?

Oh yeah there's stuff in there from when we went over to Florida and played the Fest. We also went on a walk at Lake Apopka to go and see some alligators. Lucky for us they were all in the water! Footage from our set on the Word Stage at 2000 Trees. The crowd surfer is our friend Matt who works at this great taproom in Southampton called Dirty Barrel (RIP Beards and Boards).

The footage where we are in corpse paint is from when we supported Creeper at their latest album release show in Southampton. There's some BTS of when we toured with Really Big Really Clever and I think a shot from our Edinburgh show which was the first time we'd played or I'd ever been to Scotland. There's behind the scenes stuff of when we went on tour with Touché Amoré which actually came around from meeting Jeremy Bolm at The Fest. There's also a bunch of stuff from our first trip to the mainland earlier this year where we played in Hannover and Nuremberg Punk Fest and a bunch of places we went while we were in Germany like the Tank Museum in Munster.

We also added some footage from shows where we had people DP for us like Callum from Maxwelltheband, Chasm and Pain Itself; Frankie Linton who plays in Eatboys, Not Without Punishment, Hypnotize and Pain Itself; Ben Palmer from Arid Wave, Petty Squabbles and Pain Itself (are you sensing a pattern) and Zoe our previous bassist when she filled in on a show in Brighton, she's now playing in Mulch so be sure to check them out! We've also got a shot of our pal Matt Stroud who used to play bass with me and Tom in Kilkovec before Buds. began.

What is your favorite music video (or videos, if you cannot choose) of all time?

Oh a great question which has immediately made my mind go blank! I'm not sure if these are my favourites but ones that come to mind are:

Always by Blink 182