Aidan Razzall says “This video stands in stark simplicity. We sought to achieve the exact opposite from our previous video for ‘Valley of Vision’, which was a more cinematic and dramatic story. Taking inspiration from the K Foundations ‘Burn A Million Quid’, we burned an effigy of our debut album cover in unadorned surroundings. As they burnt a million pounds in cash to spark debate on worth of currency, we visualised the Phantom video with an element of catharsis. Our record ‘Swarmculture’ is a polished example of time, effort and passion, and to see its physical form brought down to ash and dust over the course of two and half minutes serves to deliver it into the world.
You could draw references to iconoclasm, but it’s far more simple than that- the cuts between the wasteland backdrop and the cover being engulfed in flames echoes the structure of the track. As each chorus comes in, the burn becomes more severe until nothing but scraps are left. ‘Phantom’ is probably the poppiest and most colourful track we’ve written, so it was a conscious decision to create a tension in the video between the psychedelic sonic world and the stark, brutal visual one.”
You can read our review of ‘SWARMCULURE’ and the go get it on pre-order at http://ilovealcopop.awesomedistro.com/bands/weirds – including a very limited edition WEIRDS custom leather jacket package.
WEIRDS saw a flurry of interest recently after their Facebook page was bizarrely hacked and transformed to a viral videos page. After each member received a notification that they had been removed as admins from the band page, they reached out to Facebook to begin the long winded process of restoring the page. When it was eventually resurrected, their online following had exploded from around 3K Likes to over 100K Likes. However this was short-lived, as the page was hacked a second time last week and WEIRDS have been unable to regain control since, forcing them to create a new page entirely.
Aidan commented “This shows a darker side to the way we all use social media today. As soon as you make a Facebook account you sign away your power to a huge corporation, and when that relationship is compromised, it can be devastating for small, independent artists like us. Bands, businesses, artists, filmmakers, whatever, rely on social media as the main port of call for new fans. We live in a time where, particularly in music, your Facebook page is sadly an indicator of your success to people that haven’t heard of you before, which makes it an inescapable necessity. Even though the hack hadn’t affected our day to day lives- we were still playing shows and doing what we do, it felt like the reputation and following we had cultivated online, which is what everyone is so dependent on, had been lost. On a serious note, it was weird how depressing the situation actually was. It was like a really mundane episode of Black Mirror set in a van on the M1. Unfortunately, it felt to us like there could be one day in the world where everyone’s online existence was compromised, and everyone would re-evaluate how dependent we’ve become on social media platforms. It’s made us definitely reflect on how we use social media for the band.”
Fresh from performing at last weekend’s Live At Leeds festival and their recent support to The Wytches and VANT, WEIRDS are now gearing up to perform at The Great Escape, and will then embark on a June UK headline tour. The band will also perform at Camden Rocks, 2000 Trees, Truck and LeeFest festivals, with more to be announced. With unrelenting, full-throttled live shows at their core, 2017 will see the band push each performance to its limit.
Armed with a phenomenal debut record and a plethora of live dates, WEIRDS are hungrier than ever and set to infest the UK.
Upcoming dates
18-20 May – The Great Escape, Brighton
31 May – Gullivers, Manchester
01 Jun – Full Moon Club, Cardiff
03 Jun – Camden Rocks Festival, London
04 Jun – Crofters Rights, Bristol
06 Jun – The Cookie, Leicester
07 Jun – Brudenell Social, Leeds
08 Jun – Broadcast, Glasgow
09 Jun – Cluny 2, Newcastle
12 Jun – Polar Bear, Hull
06-08 Jul – 2000 Trees Festival, Upcote Farm
21-23 Jul – Truck Festival, Oxfordshire
10-12 Aug – LeeFest, Tunbridge Wells
