There’s always a spot in our heads for eclectic pop music, especially ones with darker, thought out undertones. It’s kind of like going to a carnival that’s just for you, the bright lights and strange sounds make it that little bit easier to digest a deeper message. A band that is proving ‘Pop’ doesn’t have to be a dirty word is Hobart’s Tiger Choir.
With some killer yet simple choreography, super cute dogs and fresh ambition for their videos Tiger Choir shake things up in their clip for All Time.
Since the release of their debut Unicycles in 2012 they have been making steady waves with their regular Bass Strait and cross-Tasman adventures, most recently with single Shani and now All Time and its correlating video.
The band’s past clips include dressing up as cockroaches and having a post nuclear apocalyptic party to introduce us to a vulture puppet named Vaughn who comes complete with a back story who mistakenly confuses unconscious people for dead people and proceeds to consume them. An initial idea for the video was to shoot the whole thing on a pontoon fifty metres from the beach in Sandy Bay.
Talking to vocalist Elliot Taylor, who also took post in the director’s chair, it seems the band were keen to keep things simple, “Those ideas were an example of where the original idea didn’t really translate into the final clip and we had to simplify it” he said. “After those experiences, the All Time clip was so much fun to make – so simple and easy. And probably in the end the most effective of the clips we’ve made”.
Despite the fact it took nine takes before they were happy with the choreographed arm movements, there was always supposed to be rough elements to the clip, after all that’s what’s endearing about the DIY ethos right?
“We were working with very little in the way of a budget, so we roped in a few friends to help make it” says Taylor. “Our friend Graziano Di Martino helped in producing the film, by organising gear and editing, and Kieran Sullivan (or Hobart band Naked and The Harrison Forward) shot it for us”. Sullivan happens to also be the band’s go to photographer responsible for most band shots. What are friends for though, if not to provide a comfortable, safe haven for you to get a little weird in?
Having supported the likes of Holy Fuck!, The Drums and Deerhunter you get the sense the band like to shake things up, keep things diverse. The song itself lends itself to a glarey, morning after and hungover feel and the band were looking to have that come across with an all-white colour scheme and a warped sense of time. Watching it we get the feeling we’re spying on a house party clean up, where no cleaning is actually taking place, one former reveller is just not happy about the whole idea and someone’s lost an animal (props to Costa the dog) a visual ode to the night before.
Though tightly choreographed film clips are aspired to, sometimes it pays to know when to complement a song rather than complicate it and Tiger Choir have done just that.
If you haven’t already be sure to snap up your tickets to this year’s BIGSOUND, Tiger Choir will be there in full force. Whether they wear all white or cockroach suits so far remains a mystery.
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