As far as album titles go, 'Images du Futur' is utterly pretentious, ludicrously ambitious and completely on the mark.
Suuns' second album, it matches searing highs to codeine lows, a tripped out, psychedelic journey which staggers, evolves at a stubborn pace. Seemingly at home in the studio, the band have always been careful to pair their music with suitably inventive visuals.
With 'Images du Futur' out this week, ClashMusic asked Suuns to dissect their visual approach. Guitarist Ben Shemie pieced together a video playlist, adding commentary for each clip - what emerges is an intriguing portrait of a band who seem to be equally adept at sound and image.
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There is no real approach. Most of the time it starts as a simple visual idea. If the idea is strong, you milk the shit out of it. Little to no budget most of the time, so we are somewhat limited in our production options. So the videos are always relatively easy to shoot since we aren't trying to re-create something that isn't free to use in the first place. We get help from friends. Partly why we've done some videos outside is that its a cool looking, free location that has its own light, and style. Sometimes the videos are simply an aesthetic thing, a look that creates its own momentum. We have yet to produce a video that has a concrete narrative. Recently, we've been able to collaborate with some really great video artists, who bring their own thing to the table.
Up Past The Nursery
This was our first video. We did in the woods in the Laurentians, north of Montreal. It was an ambitious first video. In fact, we haven't tried to do a video since that has made us work as hard.
Pie IX
We did this with our friend Frederique Berube who is a great photographer. We shot it in her bedroom and got this great studio look. Its one of our darker tunes, and it turned out really nice. This video set the bar high for us after that.
Red Song
Suuns "Red Song" from Topher Manilla on Vimeo.
The simplest idea. Shot in one take with a VHS camera in my parent's basement. In a way, I think its our best video. It's a simple video that has its own weird energy. And the take is good.
Edie's Dream
Another shoot in woods. Genevieve is family and is one of the most beautiful looking people you will ever meet. She carries the video with her eyes.
2020
Our latest. This was great because we got our friend Sabrina Ratté to work her magic. She uses a video synthesizer which produces crazy effects. We opted for black and white because it's cool. But she also does crazy shit in colour.
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'Images du Futur' is out now.