Chicago band Umphrey’s McGee are releasing their new album, it’s not us, January 12 of next year. A hugely popular live draw for their diversity, Umphrey’s have developed a massive cult following, many of whom follow the band around the U.S. The members of Umphrey’s say the new album reflects that commitment to musical eclecticism.

The first taste of that sonic rainbow comes from the album’s lead single, the fast-paced rocker “The Silent Type.” FORBES is proud to premiere the video for that track right here. Conceived with the help of digital studio Reel FX and director Pete Herzog, the technology-driven clip captures a wild night in the city of Chicago. I spoke with the group’s Brendan Bayliss and Joel Cummins about the video, the new album and their memories of wild nights in Chicago.

Steve Baltin: One of the things I loved about the video is that for all the technology and narrative it still felt very much like a love letter to Chicago.

Brendan Bayliss: We’re from here, that’s really where we cut our teeth, I still live here, we have an office out here. It made sense with the access we had to the drone footage and the concert on the lake and everything. And Chicago’s got everything you need for a crazy night. I love this city and I’m glad you saw this as a love letter to the city because it’s a shout out to Chicago for sure. I love the end with the fireworks going off, it’s glorious.

Baltin: What was your craziest night in Chicago?

Bayliss: I can’t tell you about my craziest night in Chicago cause I don’t remember. I like where your head’s at though. Baseball season, May to October, I would argue Chicago is the greatest city in America, with the weather and the boats and everything. I’m with you on the winter time, but Umphrey’s goes on tour January through March.

Joel Cummins: (Laughs) That’s an interesting question. There have been some good sunrises, there was definitely a night when I puked all over Brendan’s little beanbag couch thing, I had to buy him a new one (laughs).

Bayliss: It was really important and I’m glad you thought that because some of us weren’t entirely sure. Some of us loved it, some of us weren’t completely sold. But we worked with Reel FX, we have a friend named Pete [Herzog], who works at the studio and so we knew we were in good hands working with him cause we worked with him before. And anytime you have a friend working with you, then you also have a beautiful girl in the video, you have the city, we had all the elements lined up. And nowadays with the way technology works and everybody’s communicating through text and phones and it seemed like it made sense and it clicked.

Cummins: The music video in particular is such an important medium to connect with people, so this guy, Pete Herzog, from Reel FX, he has done a lot of cool things for us over the years, including this past year created an interactive poster for our Red Rocks shows, which is one of the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You hold your phone with the app they created over the poster and the poster comes alive and there’s a little 15-second video thing that happens with the poster. I think the video is cool because it really feels dark and “The Silent Type” is certainly a darker song with these foreboding overtones. And it’s like modern day Robocop feel, the Google glass with all these things popping up. That mixture of using technology both to create the video and there’s also a meta meaning to it because it’s really talking about itself.

Baltin: It’s a tricky thing to do a video because you don’t want it to be so literal that it takes away room for interpretation from the fans.

Cummins: I think you’re right. You don’t want something that has more universality to be replaced by an image that may not be as applicable to one person or another. Especially with Brendan’s voice, he has this cryptic, vague, mysterious nature to a lot of the lyrics that he writes. We have a running conversation of me trying to guess what his songs are about and 99 percent of the time he just cracks up. “Dude, that’s not even close.”

Baltin: I also like the juxtaposition of having you guys, who are more of an organic band, with the heavy tech world. Was that a conscious choice?

Bayliss: We’ve always been involved with tech stuff as far as we’ve had people text in ideas and we try to improvise to that. We have a manager who’s very good at staying cutting edge. I just turned 41, so I’m not as hip as all the youngsters. But it looks like something they would get behind as far as everybody’s kind of living out of their phone these days. It’s like, “Okay, we’re in the city, we’re going out, hopefully we can convey the idea of falling into temptation and who knows what happens being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I feel like we got it.

Baltin: Now that you’re 41 does this video bring back memories of those crazy nights or do you still have them?

Bayliss: So The Store is a good friend of ours’ bar. His name’s Kevin and early days of the band when we didn’t have any money he would let us open a bar tab and not really have to close it. We had a lot of nights at The Store, so when I see the video it definitely brings me back to back in the day, when before I had a wife and kids, it’d be 10 at night and I’d think to myself, “Maybe I should get up, go out and finally do something with my day.” Now it’s completely different, but we spent a lot of time at The Store and it’s a four AM bar, so there were a lot of nights we’re there and the lights would turn on. Once the lights turn on you realize it’s basically four in the morning and you’re like, “Where did the night go?” So, for me, the video is pretty accurate.

Baltin: What is the one song you wish you would’ve written and why?

Bayliss: There’s a Tom Waits song called “Jitterbug Boy,” that’s my favorite Tom Waits song, but it’s not one of his commercial ones. It’s about a drunk leaning against a lamppost and he flips a quarter trying to figure out if he’s gonna go back in the bar or not. That’s probably the Tom Waits song I would pick. As far as somebody else that’s a really good question. I don’t know how much time we have for that. I got it, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Baltin: How much does “The Silent Type” reflect the rest of the album musically?

Bayliss: It’s interesting because the album is really sonically all over the place. This track one, you can call it a dance song, but I think it’s more of a rock song. Then two songs later there’s a blues song and two songs there’s a prog song and two songs later there’s an acoustic song. So I don’t know if it represents the entire album because I don’t feel like we’re a band that you could put on one song and get the feel for us, which is probably a good thing and a bad thing. But “The Silent Type” does represent where we’re at as far as we’re learning to be a little bit more concise and trim the fat.

Cummins: I think this album is, if not our most diverse, certainly in the top two or three of most diversity. But I think this song feels like a very focused energy to me. One of the things we constantly tried to do with the studio work is to treat as something that’s completely different from what we do live and really going after the essence of songs and trying to get those really essential versions where we capture exactly what that song is about. So, for me, “The Silent Type” definitely does that as far as getting that dark, gritty intensity. At the same time I think it’s something that is pretty melodic and accessible too. So, for me, that’s all the things that “The Silent Type” stands for. There are so many other things that happen on the album. There are certainly no other songs on the album that sound like “The Silent Type.” There’s a lot of that progressive edge and interesting arrangements and then also some really kind of introspective lyrical moments that happen as well. So it really runs the gamut.

Baltin: When you listen to this album all the way through what do you take from it?

Cummins: For me, what I hear songs that are at our most mature levels, but also still embracing having fun. There are lighthearted things. It makes me happy because it jumps all over the place and there are moments on this album that should be a little scary and frightening and there are moments where you might shed a tear and get a little emotional. And there are moments where you might laugh at a lyric that’s kind of funny. So, for me, it’s the whole human experience right there in this album. I feel like we’ve been through it all. We’ve lost people close to us, including our original drummer; we’ve had incredible nights on the road together making music, great times with each other off the road just being friends and 20 years in the band will do that, we’ve seen a lot.

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