Raven Comatose, manager of
Reckoner, appeared in the video for the song "Negative", which has been banned in the USA.
The concept of the video -
The music video begins with a group of young men who go into a store to shoplift. The owner of the store(Jason Smith) gets suspicious and calls the police. After a chase, one of the boys was caught and was revealed to be the son of a well known local policeman so he spent the night at jail. Flashbacks run throughout the video as the young man begins writing a message on a piece of paper. It is revealed that the boy has been jailed numerous times with his gang because of different cases like vandalism, robbery, and beating up a school teacher, but it is also revealed that he is innocent and never directly committed those crimes but is only hanging out with the gang at those times thus being involved. The day he was released, the gang met up with him and tell him of their new business dealing drugs and that they were going to buy supplies that night. He spent hours thinking about what he has done in his life and finally made up his mind about turning the gang in. That night, he called through a phonebooth informing his dad about the drug dealing and apologized for all the things he has done wrong and told him how much he loved him before hanging up, he then puts the piece of paper he was writing on earlier in the video in his pocket and runs off with his friends. The drug dealers(Shadow Of My Former Self) then meet up with the guys at an abandoned warehouse and just as they are about to exchange briefcases, the police arrive. The drug dealers draw out their guns and begin shooting at the police, the police then return fire. The young man runs away from the drug dealers but is shot at the chest and lies on the floor with blood flowing out of his body. Just as the drug dealers escape, the father of the young man begins to cry as he kneels before his son's critically wounded body and before the son dies, he brings out the piece of paper and gives it a kiss before giving it to his father who cries even louder(the message in the paper was never revealed to the camera). Just as the son dies, he wakes up on the floor and sees the band surrounding him, Troy then reaches his hand out to the young man and they walk away into a bright light, the young man gets one last glimpse of his father before leaving to the other side with the band.What others in the video had to say about it -
Quote:"The video was brilliant, wasn't an exact interpretation of the song but the message was just touching and we really like the way Dale did his work, We hope to make more inspiring videos like this in the future." -Troy Mascenon (Reckoner)
"It was an amazing concept video and us five had a good time filming it. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!" -Carly Ferguson (Shadow Of My Former Self)
"That was awesome fun to do and a great song. It will be huge. Best of luck!" -Jason Smith (Mind)
And now, I talk to Raven.
Sophy Catherine Cruz-Bishop : First of all, Raven, this must be SO hard for you, what with Jakey and ....
Raven Comatose : I'm not here to talk about Jakey, I'm here to talk about the music video.
SCB : Why did you choose to take part in the video, Raven?
RC : I want to support the band in every way possible ....
SCB : .... and you want to get your face out there before "My Immortal" so that people know how good an actress you are, right?
The official poster for Mrs. Comatose's first movie "My Immortal".RC : Neither the video nor this interview has anything to do with "My Immortal". Get back on topic.
SCB : OK. So, did you have a good time filming it, like Carly said?
RC : Yes. Reckoner are great guys, and the video concept is amazing.
SCB : What about being cast as a drug dealer? Was that hard for you, after what happened with Jakey and Kahlen?
RC : Hmm .... a little to start with, especially as Jakey was incarcerated at that time. But as I always do, I just threw myself into the role.
SCB : Wouldn't it be more of a hindrance than a help to the band, showing you involved with drugs? Wouldn't it be part of the reason the video was banned?
RC : Whaaat!? No, I don't think so. I was acting, I'm not involved with drugs at all. What's next, because I appear in "My Immortal" I'm actually a vampire?
SCB : I thought you said this had nothing to do with - anyway. The given reason the video was banned -
Originally Posted by: Reckoner' 
The music video for our song Negative has been a bit of a success and has had 300 000 hits on Youtube after it had been posted just 2 days ago. It also received good attention in MTV and has been played for numerous times worldwide. But all good things come to an end as we received news that the Negative music video has been banned in the US. It was stated that the music video has been banned for associating children in violent themes such as drugs, gangs, and guns (especially in the final clip where the lead character dies after being shot in the chest twice).
From Troy Mascenon on the band's official blog -
reckonerblog.com wrote:Well this blog hasn't been used for quite a while, and now we'd be using this to express our opinion on the banning of Negative in the US. I think that they were not thinking very clearly with this and I just want to implement that the video was not really about drugs, nor violence, but about depression and peer pressure, In the video, the kid was only brought in trouble because of his gang and he was afraid to leave them because he had no other friends in school, in the end he was able to finally break free from their clutches and decided to do what was right but ironically died. I did not really see their point in banning the video since they misunderstood the concept. If ever they tell us to beg them, to go down on our knees just for them to play the video, then fuck them, we won't, in any way, negotiate with MTV to bring back our music video, if the want to ban it, then let them! We would never EVER change the music video to please them, that just shows how weak a band is and we won't stoop down to that level. We don't care if they would even ban the single or the band itself, we want to emphasize that we are artists, we do this for the music, not their money.
SCB : Raven. Do you agree with the video being banned?
RC : No, not at all. Censorship has gone crazy.
SCB : What do you mean?
RC : There are much worse videos out there, much worse than this one, that never got banned. You know why? Because those musicians suck MTV's cock night and day to get more exposure. Reckoner isn't that kind of band - good fucking thing too - and so the fat cats choose to ban it.
SCB : Do you agree with what Troy said, "let them ban it"?
RC : Yes. It'd be far better if it wasn't, obviously, the band didn't put a lot of hard work into it just for it to get censored, but we're not going to change the video so that a few hundred more people can see it. It's not banned worldwide, and anyone with an internet connection can get hold of it online.
SCB : Was this a publicity stunt to make the single "Negative" sell better?
RC : Stop taking the piss. Reckoner aren't the kind of band to pull crazy stunts like that. The video legitimately got banned.
SCB : I wouldn't expect it of them, but I would expect it of you, Raven. Any last words?
RC : Yes. When I do my next interview for DTE, can I be interviewed by another ....
SCB : Thankyou, Raven Comatose!
