THE PARTY AFTER - Release New Single "GROUNDHOGS" and Animated Video

Groundhog Day 2021, Midwestern power trio The Party After has released their newest single, aptly named “Groundhogs”, now available on all digital outlets, with an accompanying animated video, featuring psychedelic, over-the-top visuals created by Ellefson Films and Johnny's Bros Creative Studios.

The video, directed by Thom Hazaert for Ellefson Films and Ismar Rodriguez for Johnny’s Bros, Animated by Ismar Rodriguez, and Produced by Ewar Acosta and Thom Hazaert, documents the transformation of a single groundhog's normal day, into a mind-bending trip through a wild evening in the deep, dark woods.

Says Hazaert, “The band came to me with the idea of doing an animated video, and wanting me to direct, and put together an animation and creative team to make it happen. I had previously had some discussions with my friends at Johnny’s Bros Creative Studios, an amazing animation house, about working on some projects together, so we figured this would be a great opportunity to do so. We came up with a rough concept, and they set Ismar loose on the animation, who tweaked the concept as he went, and really brought it to life.”

He adds, “As we were completing it, David and I had just launched Ellefson Films, and announced Dwellers, so I thought it would be fun to park it under that banner, and expand the scope of what we were doing over there. Even though it’s a pretty dark video, it really has nothing to do with Metal, or horror, or any of the kinda typical things I think people would expect, but it’s definitely, at times, a pretty disturbing and dark visual, that aligns perfectly with the mood of the song. Either way, the reaction has been amazing, and I’m so excited to finally release it, after sitting on it for months, waiting for, you guessed it, Groundhog Day.”

“Groundhogs” on Apple Music

“Groundhogs” on Spotify

The Party After is composed of Jared Gottberg, Derek Talburt, and Tony Bates, who had, ironically, previously played together in a now defunct group known as A Wasted Effort. When that group disbanded, the trio started releasing music under the new moniker, with their debut single “Philophobic” in February 2019, going on to release a handful of additional singles, leading up to the current release of “Groundhogs”.

Ellefson Films is a film production studio formed by Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, and partner Thom Hazaert, currently producing the upcoming found-footage horror film Dwellers, directed by Drew Fortier, making the 2021 film festival rounds. Hazaert, under his THC Films banner, has produced multiple independent features including the music business documentary Long Way To The Top, featuring members of Def Leppard, Weezer, Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails, and more, as well as producing and directing special features for Shout Factory/Scream Factory, and more, with credits on special editions of Shocker, The People Under The Stairs, Return of the Living Dead, Army of Darkness, and Exorcist 3.

Johnny’s Bros Creative Studio is a Miami based Animation and Multimedia studio with several projects currently in development.