We talk to rave-pop trio Is Tropical about their sophomore album, I'm Leaving.
The Greeks by Is Tropical, directed by MEGAFORCE
The video was banned on YouTube in 25 minutes – did you envisage such a strong reaction?
We had some backlash from The Greeks – while it was only age restricted, instead of banned, we got a few strongly worded mails from fundamentalist websites and general trolls saying we were satanic and all kinds of crap. The fact that it just got banned was a bit unfortunate because most of the time it's the negative reactions to the video that can really get a dialogue going. We enjoyed trawling the comments on The Greeks to find those people who would step up to defend the video, for example, or those who would use it to talk about other issues they felt were relevant to it. The purpose of any art is to encourage people to react, so the shelf life of Dancing Anymore on YouTube was unfortunate because of that.
On the other hand, it being exclusively on Vimeo was interesting because we noticed there was a different sort of person on that platform – normally designers, creatives and people whose reactions were based on what they thought about it stylistically, visually. There was no way of predicting what would happen but we're happy that in its way Dancing Anymore made a bit of a splash.
What in your opinion makes a good music video?
Imagination and interpretation. Even a live performance, video can be really entertaining as long as it communicates something to do with the song. A music video should become a part of the song, just as much as a soundtrack can change the tone of a scene in a film. I think it's important to appreciate that one doesn't just support the other – they will always become entwined in people's memory and experience of the music.
What are your top 3 music videos of all time?
Art of Noise, Close to the Edit; Chemical Brothers, Star Guitar and White Stripes, Fell in Love with a Girl.
Do you have any other dream music video collaborations?
We really want a Spike Jonze video where we're wearing oversized inflatable suits and the whole thing is shot in fish-eye.
I'm Leaving by Is Tropical is available now.
Text by Daisy Woodward
London rave-pop trio Is Tropical – shown here in a shot for the latest issue of Another Man – have returned with their newly released sophomore album, I'm Leaving. For the album's first music video, for the heady, electro-pop single Dancing Anymore, the band have joined forces once again with French director collective MEGAFORCE, who directed their 2011 video for The Greeks. Like The Greeks video, Dancing Again is a brilliantly creative, animation-enhanced film concentrating on childhood fantasy – this time on a ramped up and raunchy teenage scale. We've decided to let the video (banned from YouTube just 25 minutes after airing) speak for itself, while we catch up with Is Tropical to find out more about their video-making process, collaborating with MEGAFORCE and their all-time favourite music videos...
Where do you start when deciding on the concepts for your videos? What are your key considerations?
The last two "hit" videos we had were for The Greeks and then Dancing Anymore – those were totally the work of MEGAFORCE; perhaps with a bit of inspiration from us hanging out and generally being debauched in each other's company. We jokingly said to some French press that we are the filthy girl that MEGAFORCE keep in their phone book when they want a bit on the side. I think it's nice that we can give them carte blanche to being as imaginative and vivid as possible with their videos, and we've grown close because of that relationship. The two videos are supposed to almost lead on from each other, with the main theme being an illustration of a young person's inner thoughts. The other videos we've done in the past always come from a simple idea like that.
What is it, do you think, about MEGAFORCE’s style of direction (their use of animation etc.) that complements your sound so well?
Doing anything creatively has to be done from a place of joy, maybe even celebration. When MEGAFORCE are sick of doing adverts or videos with strict briefs, they can always come back and go mental with us. I think it's that lack of control and restraint that works in both ways – if someone truly trusts your vision and allows you to take all the risks you want, you're going to pull out all the stops to make sure the end product is worth that trust. I also think that MEGAFORCE get the idea that music videos should never be just representational of what's happening in the song – the visual component is another chance to add a layer of symbolic meaning, even if the associations are indirect. At the end of the day you could sync any sort of visual to a song and as long as it was done with care and taste, it would work as a music video. Megaforce understand that they have that kind of license with us. Hats off to imagination!
So was the idea for the Dancing Anymore something you guys thought up with MEGAFORCE or did you give them creative control?
It was a conscious decision both to let them do their own thing and to encourage them to take The Greeks a step further – we really liked the childlike aspect of the first video we did together, and their use of digital media to illustrate it all was aesthetically very strong. Dancing Anymore is a bit more of a sexy track, whereas The Greeks was rightly interpreted by them as a little angsty, even childlike in its energy – they've drawn upon that simple observation and managed to turn it into a progression from the first video. Genius!
