The Band Explains: Suzerain - 'I Know You So Well' (Video)
Who: London based, alternative five-piece, Suzerain are: Thomas Pether (Vocals), Rich Summers (Guitar), Mike Smith (Bass Guitar), Matt Constantine (Keyboards & Cello), Ben Howe (Drums).
About The Track: Following on from the band's cover of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity', 'I Know You So Well' is the first single taken from Suzerain's second album 'Identity', due for release later this year. 'I Know You So Well' is brooding, melodic, indie rock:
"The piano flutters like a stuttering signal, the bass growls like breaking connection, and the drums march us bit by bit toward the conclusion of the chorus - that everything we do online reveals more and more about who we are. But only if there is someone watching.
'I Know You So Well' is both an obsessive assertion, and a warning: to be careful of what we do, say, buy, watch, and browse.
If we are known by our actions, our actions in a digital world can paint a unique picture of who and what we are."
The Band Explains:
Who produced the video? Where was it filmed?
Rich (guitarist): I produced the video. It was filmed in London, at Waterloo station and then mainly the train journey from Bank to Lewisham on the DLR line, which is the only line where you can sit at the front or the back and see the interesting buildings and structures as you snake through the east of the city. It was all shot on a camera phone.
2. How does the video compliment the song?
Tom: We really like the idea of recognisable everyday things but with a different context, slightly changed. Like a hallucination. It feels more like our internal lives when the things and objects around us are part of a narrative that is different from just "building", "train tracks", "trees", "grass" etc. It puts them in a similar yet different world.
3. Any behind the scenes stories?
Rich: I had to hold the phone right up to the window and annoyingly a few shots were ruined by the ticket conductor demanding to see my oyster card, and asking why I'd travelled the entire length of the line, only to come straight back. He thought I was a train spotter.
4. Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
Rich: The theme of using mirror reflections and modernist & brutalist architecture echo's the theme of the designs for the album and singles artwork.
Tom: All very human impositions on the world.
5. What is the message the video is trying to convey?
Rich: Everything we do is about trying to create a 'world'. Whether that's through the music, the live show, or the visual side of Suzerain. For this song, I wanted us to own the creative process around the video. Getting someone else to do it would have felt like handing over an idea for a song and asking someone else to play and record it. I'd been working with the visual theme of the album artwork and wanted to see how it could translate into moving images. In the end it felt just as rewarding to produce something visual, as it does to produce a piece of music.