myburdenbore

Dallas Duo My Burden Bore Debuts with Controversial Video on Valentine's Day
By Yahoo News

On February 14th you could most likely not avoid the multitude of ads and images all across the internet that served as a constant reminder that it was indeed Valentine's Day. Nowhere was this more evident then on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter; where almost all the posts and tweets were directed at loved ones or somehow related to the typical sentiment usually associated with Valentine's day. However, thousands of people also seemed to take notice at another type of message appearing on their computer screens that day; one which simply read: "Crappy Valentines Day - Love, My Burden Bore."

When Dallas musician Gregory A. Bardasian (Ploy of Oracle) and visual artist (The Revival Art of Gregory A. Bardasian) cast fellow Dallas native Leigha van Tiel to play a role in his first feature film he is set to direct and begin filming this fall, little did he know that van Tiel was also a musician; and that six months later the pair would be in the recording studio working on an entirely new project together as well; My Burden Bore's debut album "La Bella Noir"; which is scheduled for a release this fall.

This Valentine's Day, the world got its first look at the group when they released their debut single, "Love/Hate\Love", and it's controversial video; which was written, directed, shot, and edited by Bardasian. The group promoted the video by sending out a mass email that contained a "Valentine". In each email was a large graphic that read: "Crappy Valentines' Day"- Love, My Burden Bore. Below it, a picture of crying van Tiel holding a heart shaped helium balloon covered in black paint; along side Bardasian lighting a cigarette with his hand covered in black paint. The "Valentine" also included the Youtube link for the video with directions for the recipient to forward it to all their contacts or post it on their Facebook or Twitter pages. The message and video quickly begin to make its way across the internet Tuesday, and by the end of the day, the video had gotten almost 24,000 views on Youtube, and My Burden Bore had almost 2,000 Facebook fans and over 3,000 Twitter followers in a matter of hours.

However, the controversial video was also met with some resistance and the group did receive several complaints via email about the video's content. The video, which stars the pair and includes scenes of van Tiel being poisoned and buried alive by Bardasian, at times seems less like a music video, and more like a 1950's horror film. With the beginning of the video purposely set like a short film, it immediately pulls you in and it hard to pull yourself away until then very end. There are a few attempts at the end to lighten the mood, and one does get the sense that Bardasian is clearly stating that the short film video is just artistic expression, but we did ask him to clarify what the message of the video was. His only response: "Art is intended to open people's eyes; to make them think. To me, it has the same magnitude whether one love's it or hate's it. If something can not illicit a strong reaction or emotion in any fashion, it is nothing more then amusing trifles."

Despite, some negative opinions on the video, people definitely seem to like what they hear, and see. Their look is as engaging and unique as their sound. With the darkly beautiful van Tiel out front, and the burly bearded Bardasian wearing his ever present black cowboy hat, and rarely showing his full face, the two have an interesting dynamic to say the least. Musically, they blend instrumentals of Rock, Ambient sound, and Trip hop to provide an atmospheric backdrop that the pair share, and exchange, vocal duties. The results, unique harmonic melodies that border on theatrical. At this point it no doubt seems as if My Burden Bore is not only here to stay, but that we will be hearing and seeing a lot of them, and from them, in the coming year.