Glory and Glitter

This Music Video Will Catch You In A Kaleidoscope of Surreal Serenity

Like a train of thought that enters your misty mind at 4am, caught in between dreaming and waking, the new music video for De La Romance’s, Ride On, is ethereal and poignant. Distorted scenes that wouldn’t be out of place at a carnival once the initial high has faded and flashes of human emotion are coated in glitter.

“The glitter is really important because they let light dance over the body”, directors Sebastien Desmedt and Thomas Lemoine tell us, and it’s poisonous, in the best of ways, it makes us want to dance: the type of slurred dancing where our eyes flutter, floating in and out of consciousness, losing ourself in the music and the movement of our own bodies.

The connection to bodies, sensual movement and the feeling of being cocooned in a dreamland is a nod to the origins of the song. De La Romance, whose real name is Vincent Girault, composed the track six years ago as a simple piano melody. “I remember sending it to my girlfriend, who is now my wife, as a memo voice message”, the musician explains, “originally the title was Le fou d’Elsa which means ‘Crazy about Elsa’ (my wife). I just wanted to write something personal to say how much I love and need her.”

The light, the projections and the costumes evoke an animalistic spirit and conjure images of Egyptian goddess’ gyrating to contemporary vibrations: merging past and present in an intoxicating kaleidoscope of movement and music. Sometimes it feels almost as if we are underwater, as the light ripples across the glitter as waves roll across the surface of the sea, and at other times as if we are on a train – hurtling toward the gates of hell. And ‘hell’ is really the inspiration for the video, as we found out when we spoke to directors, Seb and Thomas, as well as De La Romance himself.

The Plus: What was the inspiration of the project and the creative process?
Sebastien Desmedt & Thomas Lemoine: The main inspiration was “hell”, a move directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot in 1964, that he left unfinished.
In “Hell,” Clouzot and his team tested lots of visual effects, some with moving light effects that interact with the make-up. Otherwise the inspiration of the mask comes from Phantom of Paradise Brian De Palma movie we’re both fans!
De La Romance: The track was based on the piano’s melody. Then, I wanted the arrangements to be very cinematographic, with some acoustic guitar, xylophone, and wurlitzer playing together the same line. There’s as well my two choristers, Anne and Fred, who bring a great human and warm touch on the track. Last but not least, there’s the magic touch of my little niece Louise Girault that I recorded once telling me some childish stories. The result is this amazing music video based on her story: C’est l’histoire d’une princesse qui aimait les monstres (This is the story of a princess in love with monsters).

TP: How did you choose the colour theme?
TL: Blue is a colour closely related to dreaming.
SD: Projections are there to highlight the energy that flows between the two characters. Projections were created with graphic elements transformed by a succession of smartphone applications. The result was then mixed in aftereffect.
TL: Our still photographer Pixelle Photographer, sent us beautiful images of filming where the blue color was very present. We decided to go to work on it colorimetry and color calibration.

TP: How do you want the listener to feel when hearing your song for the first time?
DLR: I’d like them to think they’ve just penetrated into something very personal, kind of a secret world. Or he could think it’s a good track to dream wide awake. To me Ride On means Let’s Dream.

TP: How was the collaboration?
DLR: It’s the fourth time I collaborate with Sebastien Desmedt for De La Romance. I love his work so much and had every confidence in him to create something arty, aesthetic and singular in the same way. For the Ride On music video, he wanted to create this amazing mask – he made of hundreds of different feathers. Sebastien wanted me to appear almost naked in the video, as the monster, with a mutual friend. It was It was quite embarrassing for me to think of hugging someone, almost naked, for a song that was initially about my love for my wife.
TL: For a first clip “unfree”, then Seb made a second single ‘Do not Look Back’ before we meet again to “Ride On”.

TP: Who in the industry are you most inspired by?
SD: There are several directors whose work inspires me, but especially that of John Bastiste Mondino.
TL: It’s hard to answer that question as Seb and I are movies and music addict.
For me the image is all about the lights and so my answer would have to be Bill Viola, Gareth Pugh Pitt and Clouzot.

TP: What challenges did you come across during the production?
TL: Me on a bed with two mirrors manipulated with one hand, and a light to turned with my other hand.. luckily I’m good at twerking so it worked out. The other challgenge was washing all the glitter off.
SD: The creation of the mask was complicated. 8 days of work were necessary to make the mask as each feather was glued on individually and we wanted to create something theatrical and unique. The mask had to give a posture and charisma to the character.

TP: Tell us about yourselves – What is your background?
TL: I started making music, and then I started a Label with a friend.
As our artists needed photos for press, I started to do the photography myself and soon after was asked to make a movie. I have two flaws: curiosity and the inability to say no. Fortunately I have friends and in addition they are very talented, so I naturally thought of Seb for this video as we see eye-to-eye artistically. He became my Yoda and padawan my sound, that’s how our collaboration was born and now we try to work together whenever we have the opportunity.
SD: I graduated from the Higher School of modern art and design where I had studied design, graphic design, illustration and photography. I started working in advertising for print and web and making skate and zombie movies with friends.
My first video clip was for the Thomas’s Band called “Diplomatic Shit, it was while I was creating this that I realised I wanted to do this job.

TP: What’s next for you?
SD: Two personal films on symmetrical cities, whose music will be signed by De La Romance. And we have spoke with Thomas about making other music videos.
TL: I am working on a draft for a new artist Clip My Label Battlejoyce and another for a group signed to Gyrls Ekleroshock but nothing official yet.
DLR: I’m currently in the studio recording some very very exciting new stuff.
A new music video for A Secret World will be released at the end of may. That will be the end of De La Romance first chapter but there will be a cool EP of remixes called De La Romance – Reworked released on the 29th of April.

“DE LA ROMANCE” digital LP available on iTunes.