Musikvideo-PREMIERE: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – „Pukebox“

Der Bandname „Psychedelic Porn Crumpets“ ist ja bereits Zucker, aber auch die Musik der Combo aus Australien ist dufte und ihre Musikvideos lassen sich auch derart sehen, dass bereits in meinen „Tippi Toppi Musikvideos“ gelandet sind. Entsprechend habe ich mich gefreut, als die Anfrage reinflatterte, ob ich nicht die Premiere des neuen Clips übernehmen wollte. „Pukebox“ heißt der, und erneut haben die Knet-Stopmotion-Künste von Ollie Jones herhalten dürfen, dem ich auch ein paar Fragen zur Entstehung des Musikvideos stellen konnte.

Nach der Kannibalismus-Alice in „Mr. Prism“ sowie dem intergalaktischen Kopfgeldjäger in „Tally-Ho“ kommt es jetzt zum Abschluss der Claymation-Trilogie. Viel Spaß mit der Premiere des Musikvideos zu „Pukebox“!

Das war doch mal ein Knaller, oder?! „Pukebox“ stammt übrigens vom aktuellen Psychedelic-Porn-Crumpets-Album „Shyga! The Sunlight Mound“ (Partnerlink) und alles Weitere zur Band und ihrer Musik gibt es unter psychedelicporncrumpets.com zu finden und auf Twitter, Facebook und Instagram sind sie natürlich auch!

Abschließend noch einige Fragen, die ich Claymation Artist Ollie Jones zu seiner Arbeit mit der Band und vor allem natürlich am Musikvideo zu „Pukebox“ stellen konnte.

Interview mit Ollie Jones

Maik: You’ve been involved in making several music videos for the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets in the past – how did you get to working with the band?

Ollie: The band posted a brief for their then newest single ‘Keen for Kick ons’ on the website Creative Commissions. I quickly wrote up a pitch with some sample images/artwork and within a few minutes I was on a Skype call with the Manager and the band and started work the very next day. And over the past two years we have created over six videos together. It’s for sure the greatest collaboration I have ever had with a band.

„Mr. Prism” was your second all-claymation-animated video ever and not entirely planned to be this long at first. Can you tell us how it went from “40-50 seconds” in one video to three full animated ones?

The „Mr Prism“ video is pretty much the same idea as the 40 second video, just expanded to fill the entire 4 minutes. Originally it was supposed to focus on a young boy, but over the course of the pre-production, it went from a young boy, an Old man, a young girl until we finally landed on Alice. Using Alice meant we had a bit more to play with because most of the audience knows the basic mechanics of that character, that she is able to shrink and grow etc. So we just used that to our advantage. Plus the idea of a giant fire breathing Kaija Alice made me laugh.

When we were discussing the idea for „Tally-ho“ we were trying to figure out what the hook/twist would be, we had Alice suddenly become a cannibal and eat a guy alive in the previous video and we wanted something that would make the audience go ‘ohhh’. Then, all of a sudden, I had a lightbulb Moment – how about we make this a surprise Sequel to „Mr Prism“. We have T-Bone, an Intergalactic bounty Hunter who takes down giant alien monsters, why not have him battle with the giant Alice in a final part of the trilogy. It just seemed to make sense to me.

I’m a big fan of looking at what you already have at your disposal, and then seeing how you can use those things in interesting ways that feels natural but at the same time surprising. As I said earlier, „Mr Prism“ had a few different lead characters in the early stages until we landed on Alice. But the main nuts and bolts of the idea remained the same. An innocent looking character in a world where they can eat all the candy they like, but instead decided to eat a human being alive.

„Pukebox“ is the final piece of a music video trilogy you’ve done for the band. First we saw a cannibalic “Alice in Candyland“, then an intergalactic renegade-badass – how did you come up with the third storyline and had there been different ideas along the way for them?

My original idea for „Tally-Ho“ was for it to be set in the water and have a Captain Ahab kind of Character hunting down giant sea creatures. When talking with Jack (singer) he suggested I shifted the idea into space, and thus T-McLaser Blast was born.

As for „Pukebox“, I think as soon as we realised that „Tally-ho“ was a Sequel, the idea just kind of unraveled itself naturally and hasn’t really changed course during the pre-production. When I told Jack my ideas he had a few suggestions but really what you guys will see on screen is pretty much what I had in my head since we first came up with the idea. We got to do a lot of fun references and homages in this one, from Mad Max, to Inner-space and even Vulton/Power Rangers.

Can you tell us something about the creative process? What steps are being taken on the way from your first thoughts to the final music video and how much was the band itself involved?

We (myself, Jack and their manager Murray) tend to have a zoom conversation where we go through all of our ideas until we feel like we have nailed the core of each specific video. I then go away and write up a treatment and maybe a few sample images. The band looks over what I have sent and then has their final say. But for the most part (so far anyway) they are pretty happy with what I have come up with and only have a few ideas/suggestions of their own which are always to the video’s benefit.

I then take the treatment and draw it all up in storyboard format, again I send this to the band just to make sure the 100% happy with where I am going. Brandon (editor and compositor) takes the song and storyboards and cuts it together so when animating I have a guide. Knowing how long something should be, what props I will need etc. I then send over each shot back to Brandon who removes wires/rigs, adds background and generally makes it look pretty. We then repeat this process well over 100 times until we have a finished video.

The three stories don’t seem to be that intertwined with the songs that also are not THAT different to each other in comparison music-wise. Has there been a specific inspiration from the individual tracks, apart from their length you obviously had to bear in mind?

To be honest, not really. In all the videos I have done for them there are only two moments in which I reference the actual lyrics of the song and that’s in „Keen for Kick Ons“ where I animated Freddy Mercury. On this latest video I had already completed the storyboard for „Pukebox“ before I had even heard the song – which is great btw. I think my style of film making and the music they create gels in some symbiotic kind of way.

How long did it take you to make the music videos?

„Mr Prism“ was made in three and half weeks, „Tally-Ho“ was made in 5 Weeks, whereas we have had around two months for „Pukebox“. But it’s safe to say there is way more packed into this video than both of the first two combined. The storyboards for „Mr Prism“ were around 10 pages, „Tally-Ho“ 20 pages, „Puke Box“ 30 pages!

I just want to stress these videos are made from a team of two, just myself and Brandon. I make all the characters/props/sets and animate them and then Brandon adds all the bells and whistles and really makes it shine. All these videos were done during the pandemic, so we have had to work remotely only meeting up once in the last six months.

How much clay did you buy/use?

I should have kept count really. But it’s probably in triple digits. At least 100 blocks of clay, probably more.

What are the main things to think about when making a music video?

As far as claymation videos goes, just be prepared to work hard – VERY HARD. I’ve been working 18-hour days for the past month to get „Pukebox“ ready in time, that’s not including a month of pre-production – storyboarding, sculpting etc.

It can be a very gruelling process, physically and mentally challenging. There are times where you can’t see the wood from the trees, but as long as you keep chipping away at it you will eventually come to the other side and have something to show for it and is incredibly rewarding.

Always my last question due to the name of my blog (translates roughly to “BeBored.not”): What do you do when you feel bored?

I’m never bored, I always think of something to do or to think about. Which is both a blessing and a curse. I find it very hard to switch off and do nothing. But in my spare time I make my own toys – sculpt them, mould them and cast them.

Thanks for the interview.