What do you get if you take llamas, dwarves, fire crackers and a Melbourne suburban street (when you don’t have a permit)? You get a cracking (no pun intended) video from an awesome band and a director who did the recent stop start clay animation on Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ video.
We’ve had this video on our website front page for a little while now and we thought it about time we got an article up on the guys from Music Sound Dance and on the daring director of the video, Darcy Prendergast.
First things first, let’s talk about Darcy Prendergast from Oh Yeah Wow who directed the video. Oh Yeah Wow did the clay animations for Gotye’s current video and are currently half way through building the set for their new clip with Gotye, which should be out soon (we’ll keep you posted on the release of that one).
This latest music video clip for Music Sound Dance is a manic 3 minute video for the Sydney band Music Sound Dance. Hard to believe, but it only took 2 takes to shoot and it was all done without any permissions or permits what so ever. The track is extremely catchy and really reminds me (in a good way) of the cheeky tracks by OK Go and if you’re from the UK and familiar with The Wonderstuff early tracks, it is very much like that too.
We had a bit of a QandA session with Shane Sponberg from the band and the video director Darcy Prendergast from Oh Yeah Wow:
With the Shane Sponberg from the band Music Sound Dance….
How long have Music Sound Dance been going?
We have been together about 18 months.
How many in the band and are they all from Sydney?
There are 4 of us, but when we play live there are 7 & we all live in Sydney.
Is there an EP due out?
The EP is called ‘MUSIC’ & out Wednesday the 27th of July.
Have you been playing any gigs locally or across Australia yet?
Our first gig was at the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown & was a showcase gig for our EP release.
With the Darcy Prendergast from Oh Yeah Wow….
What inspired you to do the video shoot?
Well the majority of work we do here at Oh Yeah Wow is animation based- labourious, time consuming and slow to create. We’d just come of the back of a long stint of clay animation stuff and decided we needed to have some fun. I sat the crew down and asked them what has your mum never let you do? The concept stemmed from our own desire to unleash a little. This clip is what happens when animators are locked up for too long…
How did you manage to run off into the distance with dwarves and llamas in tow?
It might not look like it, but the whole thing was meticulously planned- well at least in terms of roles, starting positions and escape plans. The rest was left to fate. As soon as the llamas were done, the owner walked them into their float and drove home. The little fellas… Well, they just had to run as fast as they could.
They say you should never work with children or animals in video, were the llamas easy to shoot?
They say to never work with children or animals due to their uncontrollable nature. By comparision, the Llamas and the one young boy we had in the clip were angelic. We embraced the frenzied spirit of the mob of the clip and decided to simply capture whatever happened to unfold on the day. In the end we didn’t have enough cameras to catch it all. One of the crew had his hair shaved off midway through the clip- and no one even caught it on film! Just so much going on.
Was there any bare back llama riding after filming down the streets?
Ha! Believe me, I’d be first in line if it were feasible. Llamas can only carry a quarter of their body weight apparently, which I think only made the dwarves and young boy contenders.
Did the police or the local council catch up with you after shooting or did you manage to disappear into the night?
We managed to make the first flight to Mexico straight after the sho… no. Thats a lie. Yes, Ha! The local authorities did catch up with us, rocking up right as the 2,500 firecrackers finished. Hardly inconspicuous. I was expecting to spend a few nights in jail- my producer had already promised to post my bail. But when they asked who is in charge, Dave the lead singer of the band stepped up and told them exactly what had happened with a few omissions. The police officers, standing ankle deep in confetti and streamers replied with “wish we were a few minutes earlier, missed one hell of a party”
Do yourself a favour and check out the talents of Music Sound Dance (link below) as this song is awesome (it’s got The Hottest 100 DVD written all over it) and whilst you’re at it, you should also check out the other amazing works of Oh Yeah Wow and Darcy Prendergast.
And boys….let us know when you’re down in Melbourne and we’ll definitely be there at the gig.
