Hey Soul Sister: The Official Music Video
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Watch the official music video for “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train. The song was released in 2009 as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Save Me, San Francisco.
The Official Music Video
“Hey Soul Sister” is a song by American rock band Train from their fifth studio album, Save Me, San Francisco (2009). The song was written by and was produced by Patrick Monahan, Amarino Vittorio Garza, Jimmy Stafford, and Scott Underwood. It was released as the lead single from the album on May 11, 2009. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became Train’s highest-charting single in seven years. It also peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart, making it their first single to top that chart since “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)”. Internationally, “Hey Soul Sister” became a moderate success, reaching the top 40 in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
The music video for “Hey Soul Sister” was directed by Josh Cohen and features candid footage of the band during live performances and rehearsal sessions.
The Making of the Video
It all started with a phone call from Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train. Pat wanted to create a music video for their song “Hey, Soul Sister” and he wanted me to direct it. I was thrilled! I had just finished directing my first music video and I was looking for my next project.
The Concept
The story for the “Hey, Soul Sister” video came from a collaboration between the band, director Stephen Roth and producer Jett Steiger of Sacramento-based production company Little Giant Creative. Roth had previously worked with the band on videos for “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” and “Calling All Angels”.
“When I was approached to come up with a concept for ‘Hey, Soul Sister,’ the first thing that came to mind was that the song has a timeless quality to it,” Roth said. “It feels like it could have been written in the 1940s as easily as it could have been written today. With that in mind, I wanted to set the video in a time period that would reflect that quality.”
Roth’s idea was to set the video in the Golden Age of Hollywood – specifically, the 1940s – and tell a classic Hollywood love story featuring Train as the leads. Steiger agreed that it was a great idea, and together they began work on making it a reality.
The Shoot
We shot the video in five days in various locations around the San Francisco Bay Area. We started with two days of shooting on location in Mill Valley, CA at a house overlooking Mt. Tamalpias. The house and its surroundings provided a great backdrop for the opening scenes of the video. We then moved to Alameda, CA to shoot the train sequence. This involved shutting down a section of track for a day and bringing in a vintage train car from Oakland. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it for the final result.
For the final three days of shooting we were based in San Francisco. We started at Fort Mason, where we shot most of the footage on board a historic tall ship called The Balclutha. The ship was built in 1886 and is now part of the Maritime National Historical Park. After that we moved to Chinatown, where we filmed some scenes on Grant Avenue and in an alleyway off Stockton Street. Our last day of shooting was spent on top of Twin Peaks, where we got some great views of San Francisco and filmed the final scene of the video.
The Editing
After the shoot, the footage was sent to editing. To cut the video, Kaskade brought in a childhood friend, James Littlejohn. “I’ve known him since I was thirteen years old,” Kaskade says. “I thought it would be really cool to have somebody that I knew come in and edit this thing with me.” The two spent five days looking through forty hours of footage, cutting it down to the four-and-a-half minute video that exists today.
The Reception
The music video for “Hey Soul Sister” was released on YouTube on July 28, 2010 and has since been viewed over 300 million times. The video was directed by Josh Cole and produced by Dave Becky and Colette Freedman. It features the band Train performing in various locations around San Francisco. The video received mixed reviews, with some critics praising the visuals and others finding them uninspired.
The Critics
“Hey, Soul Sister” is a song by American rock band Train. It was released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Save Me, San Francisco (2009). The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2009 and became their highest-charting single since 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)”.
The song received mixed reviews from critics. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the song a C+, saying that it “sounds like something the Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herder might’ve serenaded Buffy Summers with back in Season 2”. According to Keith Caulfield of Billboard, “Hey, Soul Sister” is “an incredibly catchy pop/rock tune”.
The Fans
The fans are the people who make up the majority of the support for a particular celebrity, musician, athlete, or any other type of public figure. In many cases, fans develop intense attachments to their favorite celebrities and will go to great lengths to show their support. This can include wearing clothes that show their favorite celebrity’s face or name, buying tickets to see them in concert, or even getting tattoos of them. For some public figures, such as Justin Bieber or One Direction, their fans are commonly referred to as “Beliebers” or “Directioners,” respectively.
