Pom Pom Squad Remakes a Nada Surf Classic

True to Nada Surf's 90s visual, this new take on “Popular" sees Pom Pom Squad frontwoman Mia Berrin switching roles between the video’s main character, teacher and football player/ love interest. As she explains the classic tropes of what being "successful" in high school means, something of a love story is unveiled as she, a cheerleader, falls for herself, the football player, in the middle of practice.

The fact that this was filmed at the same high school as the original, also includes the school’s real cheer squad and football team, and features Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws on vocals just takes the cake.

“It’s been a crazy year for me in general, but especially in terms of wish fulfillment." Berrin says of the collaboration. "I have a sort of obsession with sampling, referencing, and recreating the things I love and I tend to be very detail oriented, so getting to recreate that video in the exact same location in the exact same rooms was unbelievable.”

Pom Pom Squad’s remake came from, believe it or not, a couple of tweets. The Pom Pom Squad Twitter announced that it would recreate the “Popular” video back in March and then by June, revealed that the band would be going on tour with Nada Surf throughout the fall. Now, we’re here — one exciting collaboration down and hopefully many more to come.

To go with the new video, PAPER is excited to share some exclusive behind the Scenes photos of what went down at the video shoot and how everything came together. Check them out below.

Photography: Ben Leahy