Toronto via Vancouver band Tough Age, recently released a video for “Anti-Anxiety Exercises.” The clip was animated by Victor Martins and follows three characters (an ornithologist, an astronaut dog, and a little girl) as they deal with some stressful days but find the strength to move on. “Anti-Anxiety Exercises,” is off Tough Ages’ current release Which Way Am I?, now available via Mint Records (Lié, Woolworm, Wares)

“Though Tough Age has completed their mission of becoming a cartoon band (kinda like The Archies) the real people in the band will have completed their move to Vancouver by this Spring. Until then bassist Penny Clark and guitarist Jarrett Samson are hiding out in a cabin somewhere in the woods and drummer Jesse Locke has been busy with his music writing co-op New Feeling.”

From guitarist Jarrett Samson:

“The silver lining of this weird world is that I had a legitimate excuse to make no appearances and become as much of a bubblegum band as we were able to be. Victor is someone whose talent flat out awes me so I was thrilled to just hand it to them and offer no comment until the final product arrived and I found out that was the right call.

Penny and I needed these exercises a lot in the city but now that we live in the woods I’m chopping a lot of wood and cut my hair into a cute bob so things are looking up.”

I wanted to show people dealing with high-anxiety, stressful situations in different ways: a flight response — disengaging and running away; a fight response — blowing everything up; and self-soothing, taking the time to catch your breath and do something nice for yourself. Acknowledging you need a little break, but that after you feel okay, you have to go back and deal with your life. Once I knew that’s what I was going for, the ornithologists and astronaut dogs just sort of showed up.” – Victor Martins (animator)