Warner Records has again contacted Groove Jones to help design a new social AR filter for Disturbed, an American heavy metal/hard rock band from Chicago. Bands and brands are tapping into Social AR (Facebook and Instagram) to stay connected with their audiences, especially in today’s environment.
The AR filter is for the band’s ballad “Hold on to Memories” from the album Evolution, which recently released a new music video.
The video was directed by Matt Mahurin, who previously directed DISTURBED’s “The Sound Of Silence” music video. The band previously issued a live visual for the same track.
The “Hold On To Memories” message is powerful and universal: as long as you keep someone’s memory with you, a piece of them is still alive. The message is also timely, with many people taking stock of the past year and decade.
The lyrics for this poignant acoustic ballad were inspired by the Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead when celebrants gather to light candles to remember loved ones who have passed on.
The masks in the video begin as stark white skulls and then are colorfully decorated with vibrant colors, glitter, jewels, and marigold flowers.
Face Filter Inspired by the Music Video
The Face Filter allows fans to create their video with similar face masks and a music clip of the song. The Filter has the same tone and texture of the music video. Several masks match the ones used in the music video, except the AR filter masks do not have names. This was done so fans could memorialize their own loved ones, by personalizing the video themselves.
“Hold on to Memories” is featured on last year’s Evolution album. Its sentimental lyrics include, “Take the ones you love/ And hold them close because there is little time/ And don’t let it break your heart/ I know it feels hopeless sometimes.”
Lead singer David Draiman was inspired to write the song after the passing of several of his rock colleagues, including Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell, Vinnie Paul, and his grandmother.
The band originally released a live music video for their ballad “Hold on to Memories,” which featured a concert performance combined with a collage of photos and video of the band over the years.
Throughout the video, we see photos and video footage of the band interacting with fallen rockers such as Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland, Pantera’s Dimebag and Vinnie Paul, Avenged Sevenfold’s Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, and more.
Facebook and Instagram
The Filter was promoted on the band’s official Facebook and Instagram feed.
Fans were encouraged to take part in the experience and to post the names of people you would like to honor along with #HoldOnToMemories.
Links to the face filter are here – https://www.facebook.com/fbcameraeffects/tryit/2458325267827268
This was the second AR filter created by Groove Jones for Warner Records. The First filter was for the band Hobo Johnson and the LoveMakers – https://www.groovejones.com/hobo_johnson/