Having directed two videos for The Academic last year, Hope Kemp and Ronan Corrigan have given their directing partnership a new name - TEARJERKER - and now directed a third one for the Irish band.

With a theme of being stuck in the small town you grew up in, TEARJERKER's follow-up to Anything Could Happen and Acting My Age is a series of mundane situations, where band frontman Craig finds himself inserted in surprising places - inside a vending machine, and inside a washing machine in a laundrette, lying in a freezer in the supermarket, and so on.

In fact, with splendid work by DoP Adam Singodia and colourist Vlad Barin evoking several cinematic visions of suburbia, this small town is a weirdly alluring place to visit.

TEARJERKER (HOPE KEMP & RONAN CORRIGAN):

We wanted to get a sense of these kids being trapped in time and space - and throw dark humour in there too.

"We first started directing music videos together a few years ago. A few films later and now we’re making it official and launching ourselves as a duo: TEARJERKER.

"This is our latest video for The Academic - Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me). When the band first sent us the track, beyond the upbeat tune we immediately connected with the message of growing up and realising you need to sort your life out. We wanted to visualise the fear of becoming that friend in the bar who can only talk about the good ol’ days. Nostalgia is great but it can also be completely stagnating.

"We came up with the idea to create a series of surreal images of lead singer Craig being physically (and quite literally!) stuck in all the places you hang out at as a teenager. They are great memories but become a horror story when you can't escape them.

"The guys in the band have amazing taste and we brought in references from everywhere for the visuals — Twin Peaks, The Virgin Suicides, Dazed and Confused. We wanted to really get a sense of these kids being trapped in time and space and throw a little dark humour in there too.

"More than anything, it was just a fantastic excuse to live out a childhood fantasy and see if we could stuff a person inside a vending machine. We just thought it would be kinda weird and funny."