Behind The Scenes: One Hundred Moons - Viva Forever (Spice Girls Cover)

The Viva Forever video was one of the first collaborative efforts of One Hundred Moons as a full band.

The band was started in 2020 by Collin and Jen during the COVID pandemic lockdown. They are married, so living in close quarters with limited things to do meant they were able to write and record the entire first LP as a two-piece. They even filmed and self-produced a video for the single from that record, Fistful of Maybes.

Justin and I joined afterward so that they could perform live and expand the creative pool. Viva Forever by Spice Girls was among the first of songs that we worked on as a four-piece. It is part of our cover songs EP Take Two, a 90s nostalgia-driven project that also features a Soundgarden cover of Fourth of July.

The Viva video did not have a big budget/production. We’re a new band without label backing, so we had to work with what we had: a staunch and fierce DIY ethic developed through years of playing in self-funded fringe music bands and a deadline so that it would be released in the Spring of 2024 during our first tour.

We shot the video at our rehearsal space since all our gear was there. The drawback was that it’s not a particularly interesting location. To counter this, we used two galaxy ceiling projectors that generated swirling psychedelic patterns of cyan and magenta over each of us. For added vibes, Justin blew smoke from his vape pen to create a haze. It was hilarious and ultimately achieved the desired effect.

We took turns shooting each other through our iPhones since we didn’t have a budget to rent fancy cameras. The frames were kept tight and only shot one member at a time; this was out of necessity due to the small square footage and none of our phones could shoot wide enough. This did achieve the unintentional but beneficial effect of showcasing each member - which was nice because it got to show the expanded line-up of the band since the Fistful of Maybes video only featured Collin and Jen.

Collin brought it all together in the post. The swirling lights, the lo-fi graininess, and the captured movements of each member gave the song its ethereal and airy vibes. The barebones aesthetic also harkens back to the MTV-era style of music videos, which was appropriate since the Spice Girls blew up during that time.

We’re really stoked with how it all came together on limited time, space, and budget. There’s a Yiddish proverb that says “if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.” Among these friends, we had eight, and we managed to put together this dreamy and spacey visual accompaniment to our take on Viva Forever.