Do not adjust your set. Your drink has not been spiked. You have not just become an honorary fourth member of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. But after watching today’s music video offering, we’ll forgive you for thinking otherwise. &a&k&d’s first person perspective promo for Canadian electro outfit Babe Rainbow may well be the most disorientating thing we’ve seen all week. All fortnight even. Directed by Kent Hugo and written by Alex Kurina (www.okak.ca) and Douglas Haddow (pblks.com), its an immersive experience and puts us in mind of a hallucinatory, sleep deprived daze. Love. It.

Annnnnyway, we caught up with Kent to find out exactly what’s going on.

Where did you meet and why did you decide to start working together?
Alex Kurina and I met on the first day of art school in 2000. We worked on projects together, celebrated birthday parties, ate sandwiches, and to this day still collaborate on a majority of the work we both do. Douglas Haddow I only met in person after the video was done, and an hour after he woke up from a nap in a train station (truth). Both are heroes, and without them this film would have ended as some sort of failed ceramic tragedy.

The video makes excellent use of the statick-y, white noisey vibe of the Babe rainbow track – was that a jumping off point for you/ Did you have any other ideas how you would treat the track?
The jumping off point for this film was actually an idea for another film Douglas had planned, for a different Babe Rainbow single. I’m most likely not supposed to relay the story. Basically a man with a completely bandaged face, the product of an automobile accident, has his bandages removed slowly. Peppered throughout the film are flashbacks into his own mind, which is where Combed came along. This was intended at first, to be a two film story, to be aired together – Combed occupying the interior and the other occupying the exterior. When the other film didn’t/couldn’t be made, Combed naturally grew its own legs. The part of the track that manifests itself directly in the film, is the intense wavering sounds which translate into character movement from the screens. Also the intense percussive drops were very difficult to not cut everything to.

There were some other roads the concept could have gone down, here’s a link to one of the early writing documents (with the actual test link still active, same premise however set to scenes from Electroma..and a cat) – http://frenchorn.co.uk/YDA/BR_early_ramblings.pdf

Given the first person perspective of the video, to what extent is it based on personal experiences?
Literally speaking, not one bit. And if I’ve ever hallucinated this badly, it’s best those memories have since passed to the ether. Figuratively however most people are hopefully familiar with the claustrophobic mood. I write hopefully, as these exact scenarios aren’t too far off nor exaggerated; if you sub in print billboards for all of these screens, it suddenly becomes plausible. Also, as the screens are sampled from the past 20 years of advertisements; so is part of the direction. I won’t make a list, but most of the scenes allude directly to other music promos, and in this sense it’s also based on personal experience.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project?
The most challenging aspect was definitely the post production, which was conducted in three different cities, on two continents. Which works fantastically sometimes, but at others fails ungracefully.There’s a lot of merit to being in the same room as the person/people you’re working with. I’m convinced more and more that the internet(s) is one fancy, lovely, ornate, verbose, gorgeous broken telephone game. In this case it did work out, but needed gruesome planning.

Other than Combed, what pieces of work are you most proud of?
Aside from some advertising spots which should remain unmentioned, I’m generally happy with most things I’ve made and can’t really say which I’m most proud of. I operate on the mantra that projects I work on should instil a sense of pride and happiness in me. It sounds incredibly naive, cliché, and usually serves as a tool to deflect interview questions.

Having a root around on your website I see you’ve also done quite a lot of work in illustration and art installations – what do you enjoy about working across so many different media?
I really enjoy the variety it affords my professional ADD. I’ve never set out with the aim of working in a particular medium, I sort of traipse and fall into things dependent on concepts. This usually ends in a tangible product when it’s technically feasible. So for example, in say film, illustration and installation, these fall on a skill set I’m familiar with. Once in a while it ends in miserable failure however, when I try my hand in plastic melting, visual programming, or peruvian pottery making.

When you’re working on a new project, what helps you get the ideas flowing?
Like with #5, I meander around in my mind until something strikes me. A song, a building, an ugly face a baby is making at me; something will click in my brain and I’ll furiously scribble it down. I’m left with these lists upon lists, of which to sample from on a new project. This doesn’t mean I’ll apply the ugly baby face literally to a new album artwork (although I should), but rather taking small bits from here and there, providing they fit. The worst thing for me is to force something from nothing, to stare at an empty page, or worse a computer, and scream on the inside “think! damn you, think!”. I’d rather start with fragments/experiences from my own life and work from there.

For more info check out the &a&k&d website http://www.typethewordand.com
Plus you can check out the guys’ individual sites too:
Kent Hugo frenchorn.co.uk
Alex Kurina okak.ca
Douglas Haddow pblks.com