Let’s not bury the lede here; the above video is a pitch perfect performance of Nosferatu singing “Unchained Melody” – there really shouldn’t be any additional incentive necessary to get you to tap play as fast as possible.
Beyond the obvious enticements, the performance is somewhat of a reunion collaboration between a group of intensely creative folks in and around Nashville. Nosferatu himself is played by Eric Lehning, frontman for The Non-Commissioned Officers and writer on the independent horror film Make-out with Violence. The music was arranged and recorded by Jordan Lehning, one of the primary songwriters for The Non-Comms and the MOWV soundtrack and and intensely enjoyable songwriter in his own right. Director duties fell to Andy and Josh Duensing; Andy being a director on MOWV and both of them being wonderfully talented overall. Kevin Doyle as first AC and Chris Doyle doing makeout clearly smashed their duties. Jeremy Fetzer put together the title card and it couldn’t be more perfect. That’s a long list of credits but if you’ve been around the Nashville music scene for any amount of time, at least some of those names will be familiar. It’s rare for them all to come together to collaborate these days but the results speak for themselves; it’s clearly a powerful combination of minds.
Jordan Lehning tells us that the idea for the piece has been floating around amongst them for years but time was never taken to make it a reality. Recently, Eric Lehning (Nosferatu himself) was having a particular bad bout of colitis that resulted in some intense fasting and weight loss. His gaunt physique was a tragic state of his health but served as a positive inspiration to finally take on the role. Fortunately, we’re told he is recovering well.
The video was shot in a day and the results are undeniably entertaining. It manages to find a unique balance between being completely absurd, immersively compelling and just a bit tragic. Nosferatu himself would approve.