The Band Explains: momoyo - 'Breath'
momoyo speaks to us about the concept behind their cinematic visuals for ‘Breath’ which explores the theme of finding comfort and personal growth in the promise of new beginnings.
Where was the video for ‘Breath’ filmed?
The video was filmed at the very quiet and remote Belgian place Zandbergen, very cosy, very middle of nowhere, with a lot of fields, a lot of open space. The director found this place in her search for a perfect location.
How does the video connect with the song?
Maybe it's interesting to say something about the process.
I'm a Jonas Bruyneel, the songwriter and producer of the song. 'Breath' is the first single of a new band, momoyo that we formed in the summer of 2019, but all the musicians were playing together in a lot of other touring bands (Uncle Wellington, Noémie Wolfs, Galine,…). By turning 30, I wanted to start something new in which I could combine past collaborations, experiences and sounds in a new identity. We finished an EP (release summer 2020) and worked with some great people like Filip Tanghe (Balthazar) and Bryan Lucey (Depeche Mode). Every song on the EP consist of one word: Breath, Sweat, Colours, Spit, Skin an Spirit, and all those titles are one aspect of a new being, a new entity.
I wanted to release that project with a visual identity that reflected that sense of transforming and renewal. Then I got to know the amazing Belgian artist Lena Nerinckx (contour.collective) who draws, films, does art design, photography, a talented all-round artist who was able to visually shape that story I wanted to tell in the music. We talked a lot, she showed me a lot of inspirational visual ideas, until she had the quite simple but great idea to represent that new entity as a big bubble. The bubble transforms, changes constantly, is an entity with borders, is fragile, reflects light, distorts everything around it. And as the first single was 'Breath', it was the perfect song to introduce that bubble.
This first video introduces it by the story of a young couple that doesn't seem to work out very well. It starts as little drops, small frustrations and doubts that leave their skin, and forms as an new entity in their house, some kind of symbol for their memories of better days that takes a new form outside of themselves, just like what we want to do in the music, finding a new form of expression as a result of past experiences and collaborations, filled with memories. A transformation.
She designs all the artwork and video's for the first momoyo EP, and the bubble will be present in all of them.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
It is very cool how Lena succeeded in getting those bubbles right. It was important not to work with after effects or CGI, because by really having those huge bubbles floating in the room, she could play with the light, everything is natural, the reflection in those constantly transforming bubbles is real and visually interesting. Lena had a guy who's job was to constantly create big soap bubbles on set while filming, which had to be perfectly in time. Those where unique moments where everyone and everything had to be just right; the light, the movements, the acting, the focus, the direction. Lena has a great sense of timing. And the place was soaking wet.
Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?
The idea is a couple that lives together in a relationship that is coming to an end. He looks distant, she looks lonely. They are looking for connection that isn't there anymore. You see their past experiences, their happiness, their stories, memories and dreams, evaporating from her skin, dripping of the walls, getting out as damp and breath, and forming a new entity, a visualisation of what rests when a story ends, as a giant, fragile bubble that fills the empty room.
In the video, you can see a drawing of a guy and a girl, that's also an artwork by director Lena.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
I think that the most important message in the video, as well as in the story behind the music, is that all things eventually end, the good things and the bad, and that there is something new coming from it, something with the ability to transform and evolve.
In the next single, we continue that visual story, paired with music that evokes another atmosphere that follows on the melancholy of Breath.
Interview by Karla Harris