Today sees the release of the video for “Praying Mantis” the latest single from Johannesburg based rock band WONDERboom, taken from their new album Rising Sun.
Shot on location at Phoenix Studios in Johannesburg and Llandudno beach in Cape Town, the video captures the ethereal feel of the song perfectly. Vocalist Cito comments:
We wanted to write an animated fantasy story, capturing the tragedy of falling for a femme fatale, but also depicting her sadness in the choruses. It’s the realisation that your demise is inevitable and although she has to do it, she still feels devastated taking you out. Usually the black widow is chosen as the cruel woman in the femme fatale type setting, and The Cure’s Lullaby was definitely inspirational in this case, but we chose the praying mantis – the females decapitate their male lovers after mating. For me it’s different and beautifully dark. I love the subtle electro feel and would love to hear it on the dancefloor.
Director, animator and editor of the video Roger Williams adds:
I wanted to explore ways to visually express the emotions that the song inspires in the listener. Or to find a visual metaphor to interpret the lyrics with. To achieve this, I worked with Tina Rusin, a young, but highly accomplished dancer from . The idea came about to shoot slowed dance sequences of Tina, to try and communicate the mood of the song, and also to give personality to the character she portrays, i.e. the Femme Fatale. In contrast to these sequences of Tina, we wanted to show the band in a melancholic atmosphere where they appear weak and vulnerable. As if they are each caught in the grip of the Praying Mantis. Martin came up with the idea to use different instruments to the band’s usual equipment. A banjo, double bass, accordion and a pair symbols were combined with strange poses by the band , which added to the oddness of the visuals. From there the story line developed into the fantasy tale that the video tells.
We also asked vocalist Cito a few of our own questions ahead of the video’s release:
What was it like to work with Roger Williams?
Always such a pleasure working with Roger. Because he’s relatively new at this, I kind of feel like we’re all just taking a chance on things, but still, totally trusting his vision. It’s quite exciting. He’s also a gem of a person. Beautiful soul.
Was he the natural choice for the video?
Roger has become the fifth member of WONDERboom because he’s fulfilled a very important aspect of our presentation with all four Rising Sun music videos – the visual. It’s like we have a complete entity to offer now. Hopefully, he’ll work with us again!
By using “Praying Mantis” to tell a story, could you see yourselves becoming more ambitious and using several videos to tell an over-arching, more complex story?
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from working with Roger on all four music videos, it’s that we can really do anything visually. He’s such an amazing asset, not only as a director, but also as an animator and designer. Working with the green screen format allows us to think big and use our imagination to its fullest. I think it can also influence future song-writing too.
Rising Sun is available on all digital platforms.
Header image by Anton Van Straaten.
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