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| "I love Hitchcock so this is sort of a tribute to him" |
Bloodgroup - Nothing is Written in the Stars (Director: Heiðrik á Heygum) from Heidrik a Heygum on Vimeo.
Bloodgroup's latest full-length, Tracing Echoes, is without a doubt the band's most cohesive, focused and accomplished effort yet, a sentiment shared by number of critics, many of who concluded that the band had finally found its niche. Halifax Collect's own Dru Morrison wrote in his review of Tracing Echoes, "[...]I was assured, something had happened to Bloodgroup in these past years. With such a drastic change in sound, how can’t you feel excited about what will unfold?" (complete review here). And he was right. Most of were excited and everyone was looking at a band coming together. Even aesthetically, the band had come together in an almost new wave/goth fashion, what with the somewhat unified dark look in promo photos that complimented the album's artwork (for context, here) and later the first video from the album, for single "Fall," and now to a greater extent in the "Nothing Is Written In The Stars" video.
The music video we're previewing here for "Nothing Is Written In The Stars" totally lends itself to the darkening Bloodgroup, subsequently building on the premise that the band almost become conceptual for Tracing Echoes. "When we were writing for this album everything came to us very naturally and unforced," says Ragnar Láki (Raggi for short) a man of assortments of keys, synts, pedals and backing vocals. "It's like there was a steady flow of music through us and we all wanted to make exactly the same thing. I'd like to think people like Tracing Echoes for its honesty."
After the ambiguous, symbolic, allegorical, interpretable video for "Fall" (reviewed and watchable here), you return with a video that is both linear in its story and even old fashioned in style and aesthetics. Why?
Raggi: It's exciting for us to make different videos with different artists each time. We get to make multidimensional pieces of art, our music combined with the artistic expression of the directors. It was always planned to work with Heiðrik (director), he chose "Nothing Is Written In The Stars" and developed the story.
Raggi: To my knowledge Heiðrik had no idea about the "Fall" video, and we didn't even know his story for the NIWITS video until he arrived in Iceland to shoot it.
Heiðrik: I had not seen the video for "Fall" before I made this. "Fall" come out while we where editing this video.
The video is cunningly self reflective for those of us that know the Bloodgroup story, what with the two actresses (ex singer (victim) / current singer (voyeur/agressor)) in the video and how one stalks the other. Effectively, your current singer takes out your original singer, with a blow to the head, mind you. You must have had some fun with that? It's an obvious reference to the band's history.
Raggi: We had a lot of fun with this! It was so great that both Sunna (vocals) and Lilja (ex vocalist) wanted to do this. Another interesting fact: The guy in the video (Styrmir Hauksson) was actually a member of the band for a while and he mixed Tracing Echoes.
Heiðrik: I came up with the idea with the video and I thought it would be cool to have the singer of Bloodgroup to play the lead. Then I thought about who could play the other girl who was supposed to look like Sunna. Then I though hey, Lilja and Sunna look like each other a lot and Lilja would fit perfectly for the part. I never thought about anything else. I was just looking for someone who looked like Sunna. I didn't think about anything else until people start talking about it.
Why did you feel this film noir / femme fatale approach fitted the song?
Raggi: We trusted Heiðrik completely, the video is his art complementing our song. We are very happy how it turned out and the fact that it's so different from our last video made it just perfect.
Heiðrik: I heard the song and it reminded me of Hitchcock. I love Hitchcock so this is sort of a tribute to him. Strangers on a Train was a big inspiration. I love '50s and '60s thrillers. They are cheesy/scary/literal/sexy and always quite beautiful. It's hard to believe we did manage to film this in one day. It was very chaotic We didn't have the leading actor until one hour before shooting and I had 40 degrees fever. It was crazy.
Raggi: Yeah we always have a few ideas flying around. I guess on our next release we'll open up some new doors for the music to flow through, we never really decide on a specific sound, style or genre, we just explore. The only thing I know for certain is that it's going to be different.
Your other lead singer and tech-triggering keysman is Janus, originally from the Faroe Islands. Heiðrik is his countryman. Is maintaining the Faroe Islands / Iceland exchange important to the band?
Raggi: The fact of the matter is that some of the most talented people we know are from the Faroe Islands. It's pretty amazing how much talent comes from such a tiny place, (under 50.000 people).
In that regard, the per capita pissing contest Icelanders love so much, the Faroe Islands has hip 'ol Iceland beat?
Raggi: Yup. I guess so!
As you are reading this, Sugarcane Recordings, Bloodgroup's label home, is readying a remix release called "Disquiet EP," featuring Tracing Echoes songs as interpreted and tempered with by artists such as Com Truise, Hercules & Love Affair, and Girl Unit. The EP is slated for a fall release, this year.
- Birkir Fjalar
Heiðrik's Vimeo channel and soundcloud.
Pictures by Sigríður Ella Frímannsdóttir
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