The Band Explains: Patch & The Giant - 'Flowers' (Video)

London alt-folk outfit Patch & The Giant provide some behind the scenes insight into their single and music video, 'Flowers'.

‘Flowers’ isPatch & The Giant's first official single from their upcoming album, ‘All That We Had, We Stole’, due for release on 10th February 2017 – a polished and accomplished debut produced by Nick Trepka, whose producer credits include Emmy The Great and Mercury Prize Winner Speech Debelle.

Patch & The Giant Explains:

Where was 'Flowers' filmed?

We had three different locations - a desolate beach along the north sea coast in Essex, Epping Forest and a bit of a guerrilla style filming on an empty Victoria line carriage in north London.

How does the video compliment the song?

We wanted to go with a video concept that avoided having any real narrative,, for the song itself to be the protagonist. We chatted long and hard with directors (Marv and Ben of the band We Used To Make Things) and they were very keen to have something visual and uncomplicated. 

Any behind the scenes stories?

We filmed the beach scenes at first light, which meant arriving on location at 3.30am...it was pretty incredible actually. We parked up and it was still the middle of the night but it was a 15 min walk to the precise spot of beach we needed so we trekked across the pebbles and sand, laden with blankets, camera equipment and spare trousers (of course) - by the time we'd reached the spot the sun was just poking up and flooded the whole beach with the most amazing and ethereal light. Our favourite behind the scenes story is probably in the scene where Luke is looking back from the beach and we're all gone, there is one take where Nick is taking a piss in the side of the shot. We decided not to go with this as the final take. There was also the time where our equipment (and producer, Kristina) nearly got flattened by a cow herd which happened to be grazing in the forest. 

Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?

It's all quite consciously understated really. For the reasons above we didn't want to go with anything too lively or garish. In order for it to flow the way we needed it too we put a lot of pre-thought into costume, light, time of day, specific spots of woodland etc... Marv spent hours upon hours in advance of the shoot roaming around Epping Forest colour matching and trying to find the perfect spot. The tube scene is there to set the absolute contrast. The harsh, metallic sounds and blue/grey light transitioning into the forest scene (and back again after the walking into the sea) wasn't easy to get right without it saying something quite different but we hope it works for the beholder. 

What is the message the video is trying to convey?

It can probably mean something different to everybody. The song is about the concept of home and one of the strongest elements of the video is the Romanticism of the nurturing nature of, well, nature.....

Interview feature by Karla Harris