Matthew's a Star! (Honeywell Security Telecommunicators' "You're in My Heart" Music Video)

Good morning!

Hope you had a great weekend! Things were wild and crazy, w-w-wild and crazy, at the homestead Friday-- fellow librarian Jen Q and I hosted a party at my house involving large quantities of wine and dramatic readings from a pile of library-owned romance paperbacks (so scandalous). There was a great turnout, and I don't know if I've laughed that hard at something in real life in probably a year's time, so all and all, a success. Saturday morning, I woke up with the devil's own hangover and an update in my Facebook feed from a friend of mine about a Honeywell Security video. Sounds like advertising spam, right? NO, NO IT WAS NOT. It was Matthew's big music video debut! Folks, check out my tiny guy's little 15 minutes of fame (link here, stills from the video below):

Professionally, Matthew has traded his KORG keyboard for a desktop keyboard in recent years, transitioning into the tech field from the unstable world of "giggin' for a livin'". In spite of the swap, he is still a MONSTER of a piano player and an even better composer. I stand by the idea that if it was 1986, we would have to use a platinum rake to manage the obscene amounts of money he would command as a frontman of a pop band (I would probably be replaced by Tawny Kitaen in this scenario, but let's just dream it's me for a moment); however, in 2013, the music business just isn't what it once was. Which is why hearing a new Telecommunicators song is like Christmas came early for us Matthew's-music-supporters! In August, Matthew went on set to record a music video for Honeywell Security, who had commissioned a song about "being connected even when you're away from home". My extremely talented husband came up with the song "You're in My Heart" (which you can download for free, here). 

Selected lyrics:

Think of me, through the static
I hear you like a voice inside my head
With you and me, it's automatic
We're ready for whatever lies ahead

When you're far from home
You're never really alone
Doesn't matter if we're apart
You're in my heart

Do you love it? Correct answer: yes. Matthew had previously penned a song called "Opportunity Knocks" for a Honeywell promotional video, but this new spot features not only the song, but Matthew and his band in a starring role in the production!

Whole band shot, with Bobby (guitar, also produced the song), Noah (drums), and Ernest (bass)

Thoughts on the song: one, the "ha-HA-ha-heart" line will tug at the most unsentimental of heartstrings, and is catchy as all get out; two, I am completely biased, but this is GREAT. When we first met in 2008, I invited Matthew over to my house for our second date to watch the Donald Sutherland version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (like you do..I still stand by forced-movie-screenings as a sterling example of how you vet boyfriends in the early stages of a relationship). He was working on some tracks for an album that summer, early drafts of which had been posted to Myspace (yes, Myspace was still a thing at that point-- isn't that bizarre to think about?), and I remember the split second of "oh, no, I'm going to have to listen to his album and act like I like it" portion of the date like it was yesterday. At that point in my life, the mating call of "Here, listen to my album!" cues me going "Here, let me grab another beer first". I have listened to so, so many acoustic covers of Beatles songs, weird, tripped out electronica, and annoyingly saccharine-ified-on-ukuele country standards in my college and post college dating life that I had become conditioned to look poorly upon the prospect of a musician significant other. As much as I support creative arts, I am not listening to your ska/jam band version of Talking Heads' "Road to Nowhere", and that is just the way it is. Matthew turned on his first track and I was surprised to hear something that was a tonal cousin to the music of New Order/Bauhaus/Depeche Mode with the sentimental heart of Cat Stevens. Neo-new-wave-vulnerability! And look at me now... I married the guy! 

Check out his tiny 1,000,000 watt smile here:

The video was shot at an east Nashville home I would like to live in, and centers around the idea of Matthew being a musician on the road who is still able to connect with his family via a host of Honeywell Security products. My Facebook blew up when I posted this on Saturday with "What! Matthew's living a secret life as a bigamist!" to which I countered "I am ok with a secret family if I can not so secretly live in their house". Seriously, someone let me have a house like this. As we're actually going through the conversations about starting a family and buying a house in the next year, it's really sweet to see him interacting with a wife, a daughter, and a chocolate Labrador puppy after my own heart in a dream house as a visual placeholder for what I hope 2014 has in store for us! Baby + house + dog = living the good life. 

The video, shot by photographer/filmmaker/friend of us Chad McClarnon, is just gorgeous to look at.  I'm the kind of person who would cry at a Hallmark commercial, so subjects like "family" and "homesickness", etc, etc, are particularly émouvant to me. I congratulate this commerical and its makers for being so sweet! You can see behind-the-scenes shots from the filming under the hashtag #honeywellheart on Chad's instagram (see 'em all, from other members of the cast and crew, here). Isn't living in the future amazing?

Anyway, I'm so proud I'm busting my vest about Bab's video stardom. Here's to more Telecommunicators commercial success in the future! :)

So! What do you think about the video and the song? If you like what you hear, there's a whole album worth of goodies in the sidebar of the blog to the right (link here) and again, you can download the song with one fell click here. Do you have any family members or significant others with musical talent? What's the worst ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend musical project you've had to support in the name of love? Let's talk!

Back to the vintage grind tomorrow, thanks for listening to my proud-wife ramblings today! I'll see you back here Tuesday. Til then!