The weariness of the world traveler is often underestimated, especially when it comes to a touring band. City after city, country after country, hotel after hotel, interview after interview… You get the idea. And if you need to see the alienation and mind-numbing haze that of that nomadic lifestyle, go see director Grant Gee's Radiohead doc, Meeting People Is Easy. With that in mind, it's easy to see why Death Cab For Cutie stayed stationary for this first video off the new album, Narrow Stairs. They didn't have it easy, mind you — the band was sequestered in a positively arctic warehouse with co-director/DP Shawn Kim — but they were spared the grueling travel schedule that befell co-director Aaron Stewart-Ahn and the video's lead actress. Ten cities around the world in not many more days is no pleasure trip, especially on a music video budget. And, a further complication was the sheer length of the song. "I Will Possess Your Heart" is over eight minutes long with a bass-heavy instrumental introduction that makes me think the Death Cabbies got a little too into the Joy Division resurgence of the past year. Yes, there's an edited single version, which means that the directors and editor Jeff Buchanan were respesonsible for delivering more than one version of the final video.
Aaron Stewart-Ahn, director: I had been pitching this for years. The original idea was a less global version for the song "Transatlanticism." I used to travel alone a fair bit and felt that cameras had gotten to the point where I could shoot a certain experience without any artifice. But it probably always sounded crazy on paper. As crazy as releasing a nine minute single, so the two odd ideas found each other.
Because I've worked with the band so closely, I realized that the new album truly was a confident aggregate of everything they've done before and was the first recording to really reflect the band's live performances. So it had to have performance. The band came up with the idea of them being in as cold an environment as possible.
In my head the performance footage looked as if Shawn Kim had shot it, with really aggressive flares
and classical camera movements. I'm just a huge nerd for DPs and I think he is absolutely one of the best who ever shot music videos. When it became clear that the delivery date was making the schedule impossible, it was a no-brainer to ask Shawn to not just shoot the performance, but also direct it. I thought that might add another dynamic to the mix. We didn't even discuss things too much in detail. I wanted to have him bring his ideas to the band. I told him: My travel footage is going to be completely reactive, so if we're musicians, you're leading as the rhythm section and I'll follow.
Shawn found a refrigerated warehouse and had to discuss things with a medical adviser. I proceeded to travel for the next 13 days with only a producer, a coordinator, and our actress.
We started with places in Europe I knew and that would present themselves as the typical destinations for young Americans. We visited continental Europe and Japan — where two of the band members grew up — and then we'd take a plunge and go to places we had no foreknowledge of. The further she goes, the warmer the world becomes.
Unfortunately, certain romantic ideas about travel became harsh reality for us: India was out because of the time needed to prep visas. We wouldn't have time to take antimalarial drugs. So many possible destinations
fell apart due to the sheer amount of time needed to fly. The budget restricted our crew size and I knew that shooting without permits or attention would require a massive amount of discretion. I had to shoot it myself, which was very stupid for many reasons. I missed having a DP. Everything was done in one take but we got things that would've been impossible any other way. Our biggest headache was dealing with legalities. A lot of shots had to be dropped out of the edit if background people or logos were recognizable. It's sad that you can't legally present the world how it is.
When it was all finished I was reminded of being at film school in London, where I had shot my very first video for Ben Gibbard's college solo project All Time Quarterback. He had been bumming around Europe on his own and dropped by for awhile. We knocked the video out for five bucks in an afternoon on the first DV camera I ever owned. The London Underground played a big part in that video and so I actually found it on YouTube and saw that some of the shots were similar. Again, that desire to make everything a culmination.
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--> watch "I Will Posses Your Heart" via YouTube in long version or short version. And, a Quicktime of the long version
Death Cab For Cutie
"I Will Possess Your Heart" (Atlantic)
Aaron Stewart-Ahn and Shawn Kim, directors/DPs | Cody Ryder and Karen Lin, producers | Streetgang Films/Mister Boom Boom, production co | Jeff Buchanan, editor | Lanette Phillips Management / Free Agent UK, rep for Shawn Kim |
Laure Scott, rep for Aaron Stewart-Ahn
