The Band Explains: As Sirens Fall - 'Where Are You' (Video)
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| Photo by Hamish Irvine. |
Where was the video filmed?
The video was shot at a mill in our hometown of Keighley! They've recently used that stage and all the other sets and rooms (which will be seen in another video very soon) in a film, and the set was left behind. We went in one night for a look around and it just hit us how perfect it would be to use to make the video that we wanted to make.
How does the video compliment the song?
The song is all about confusion, guilt and loneliness. The song itself is incredibly dramatic and it's about the separation of two people, and the video definitely represents that. I think these themes are pretty clear in the video, and become even more clear in its sequel.
Any behind the scenes stories?
On the night we first went to look around and choose rooms for sets and locations, the guys taking us around took us to the top of this huge tower. A lot of mills have towers like this, they have a floor at the top and under that floor its a straight drop all the way to ground level, with a chute running down it. It was a long way down! Anyway, we got to the top of this tower and I decided it was a good idea to walk across the unmaintained, rotten, wooden floor to get a photograph from the window. The floor creaked and gave way beneath me and I found myself dangling from the top of this tower, looking down at a hundred-foot drop. The only reason I didn't fall through completely is because my hands were poised to take a picture! So yeah, the 'Where You Are' video tried to kill me.
We also 100% believe that that mill is haunted. We saw some strange stuff. We spent most of the downtime on the shoot scaring the living hell out of each other.
Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
The story of the video is a relatively simple one. There's a guy waiting for his girlfriend to come home, and he texts her asking where she is. As she receives the text, she gets knocked down by a car. The guy falls asleep at home, and in his dream he's playing in a band at this snooty, sort of Hunt-Ball esque party. Over the course of the video he discovers more about what has happened to her.
There's a lot of red balloons, if you look for them. That comes mainly from a French film from the 50s - 'Le Ballon Rouge'. It's a lovely film about a boy who finds a red balloon and it follows him around. I watched it and thought about how sinister that balloon could really be, if only portrayed slightly differently. In a lot of popular culture as well, most often I've seen it in 'The Walking Dead', red balloons are used as a negative foreshadowing image. I loved the idea that something as simple and with as many positive connotations as a party balloon could actually incite terror in someone knowing what seeing one actually meant. Obviously, my character in the video is unsure what is really happening, but as he slowly figures it out I think the red balloons play a strong part in showing that.
There's a bunch of easter eggs like that in this video. The words 'Not Dead Yet' are scrawled all over the place as well - you'll find them if you look for them.
What is the message the video is trying to convey?
The video is trying to convey the message that sometimes things simply aren't what they seem. It can take a long time to figure yourself and other people out, and it can take some strange journeys to get there. It's saying never settle for a simple answer.
Interview feature by Karla Harris