The Artist Explains: SKOLES - 'Am I Going Too Crazy'

British singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist SKOLES speaks to us about the creative process behind his gripping visuals for his debut single, ‘Am I Going Too Crazy?’.
Out now via Stardog Records/Republic Records, ‘Am I Going Too Crazy?’ is an adrenaline fuelled, hard-hitting, alternative track that taps into the desperation, mania, conflicted emotions and exhaustion felt when past mistakes comes back to haunt you.

SKOLES Explains:
Where was the video for Am I Going Too Crazy filmed? 
 The video was filmed in the raging white waters of the Los Angeles River. 

How does the video connect with the song? 
The song is a small thought that is all-consuming. “Fuck, I really don’t like how I handled that” is a really important and horrible feeling that just compounded on itself over and over again and turns into something manic. The video is about that mania

Any noteworthy behind the scenes stories? 
The director, Joe [Brume], Lillie Wojcik at Republic and I connected immediately, mainly on how intense we could make it. We went deep; at this point I was under the impression that we were writing the video for an actor to play, so I had such freedom to push the idea as far as I could into this sense of ‘internal fleeing’. Then four days out from filming, everyone else decided that I was in it, which I hated up until I got on set and saw Joe’s passion. 

Could you tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used? 
The whole thing was shot on film which, again, was Joe’s idea. The label showed a lot of faith in agreeing to that for an artists’ first video [that had never written a video or acted before]. You only get a couple of takes per shot with film, and with limited light the pressure can really be overbearing if it goes bad. But it didn’t. It went perfectly and that hearty, granular feeling you get from the film takes the tone of the song even further. 

Is there a message the video is trying to convey? / What do you hope people take away from watching the vid? 
 The message is the same as the song’s: “You can run from how you acted for as long as you want, but when it catches you, it’s gonna really fuck you up.” And it should. 

The song’s production ‘sounds’ like I heard the song when I was writing it. The video ‘looks’ like how I imagined seeing it. That’s all I could ever ask for and I’m genuinely at peace with that. I hope that people watch it and don’t think, ‘here’s some bloke from a band doing a video that feels like loads of other stuff. We get it.’ You might not like it, but I reckon you’ll feel SOME kind of way about it.

Interview feature by Karla Harris