‘Workaholics’ Creator’s Band Debuts Pot-Friendly Video on HTTV

Kyle Newacheck, one of the creative forces behind the hit Comedy Central series ‘Workaholics,’ is bringing his talents to High Times TV this week with the debut of a pot-friendly video from his band Fade Up Fade Out Bye Bye. The new video, for the song ‘Don’tcha Feel (Like Loving Me),’ features a pot nug with bloodshot eyes as the lead singer and supporting vocals by a pair of backup buds.

Newacheck, who created ‘Workaholics’ with the show’s three stars and directed a majority of its episodes, told High Times that the inspiration for the nugs in the video came from his experience growing his own weed at home. While trimming his harvest one time, Newacheck noticed that one “stacked nug” had two remaining leaves that looked like hands. The bud was reminiscent of a puppet, an image that returned to him when it was time to make a video for his band’s new song.

“Wow, the song is called ‘Don’t You Feel Like Lovin’,” recalls Newacheck. “What if that’s from a nug of weed’s perspective?”

Fighting Stigma with Fun

When he shared the idea with Anjela Vega, the video’s director, she ran with the idea and created the puppets herself. Newacheck says they were perfect for the “Doobie Brothers vibe” of the song. And while they provided a fun element for the clip, Newacheck says they also make a statement that more people would appreciate cannabis if they let go of the stereotypes ingrained by generations of prohibition and misinformation.

“Don’t you feel like loving me?” he says of pot. “Just let go of all the stigma, all the bullshit that people think about weed.”

Newacheck, who has been playing with Fade Up Fade Out Bye Bye for about five years, says that “the band’s highest accolade at this point is that we got voted the worst band name at SXSW a couple of years ago.” Starting as a studio project, the group didn’t limit itself to one style of music.

“We started with an appetite for all genres,” he says. “So, if you listen to it on random, it’s much like listening to Jack FM back in the day. It kind of plays everything.”

Newacheck’s contribution to the band includes singing and playing guitar, trumpet, glockenspiel, and slide whistle, as well as work in the booth producing. He is joined by Danny Webber, Kayhan Ahmadi, Josh Wolf, and Peter Spryer in Fade Up Fade Out Bye Bye.

New Netflix Feature Drops Next Month

Newacheck, who directed shows for all seven seasons of ‘Workaholics’ as well as other television work including episodes of ‘Parks and Recreation’ and ‘Community,’ is also staying busy behind the camera. Last year he directed ‘Game Over Man’ for Netflix, which he describes as “a punk rock shock comedy that had a lot of heart,” starring Adam Devine, Anders Holm, and Blake Anderson of ‘Workaholics.’ And last year, he wrapped another feature for Netlix, ‘Murder Mystery’ starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.

“Sandler doesn’t smoke that much,” Newcheck said when asked if he and the actor had burned some herb together on set. “He would always just tell me if I got a little wild at the monitors, he’d be like, ‘Go smoke a bone!’”

Getting high, Newacheck says, helped him “get his head straight and come back” to face the pressures of making a feature film.

“The movie was challenging and it was the biggest job I’ve ever had in my life,” he says. “I was smoking weed every day.”