The Duo Explains: Spoon and the Forkestra - 'Pirates'
We speak to Emily-Mae Lewis of duo Spoon and the Forkestra about directing their music video for excellent grungy indie folk rock single, ‘Pirates’, which explores the the fun and friction found in friendships.
Where was the video for ‘Pirates’ filmed?
We filmed the music video for our latest single 'Pirates' in my hometown Hamburg (Germany) on the premises where at the local Dockville Festival is held... well, unless it happens to be 2020 and nothing is held anywhere.
Luckily for us that meant no people, no stages and no trash and lots of space for four people, a 90s scooter, a car and a camera to jump around.
Due to the Hamburg harbour nearby it’s an environment where industrial scenery meets nature. We chose that location to both to feature the videos general theme of contrast and to provide muted tones and greens for the green and red colour scheme.
How does the video connect with the song?
The songs story is written from an observers perspective. The lyrics are giving an insight of the relationship between two people by one person just watching the other and telling us what they see. They seem to have a long, strong bond but at some point their paths in live didn’t align anymore. And the observer, they don’t really understand what’s going on with the observed person anymore but they still love them.
In the video we tried to portray a similar relationship featuring Timo and I. Showing two sides of a friendship.
The song, same as the video is a snapshot of their lives together. Just a snippet of someones time. It somewhat feels like the last chapter of a book we didn’t read.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
Well, back when we were planning the music video it had been limbs-are-melting-hot out for a month and we couldn’t imagine the weather ever changing to bearable again. So of course we accidentally set shooting day in the first week of almost constant rain and a temperature drop of 50%.
So there we were, covered in blankets and jackets and scarves, shivering, waiting for the next three minutes of sun to quickly take off our clothes and jump in the cold water. Noses were running, mosquitoes were biting; probably Karma working its magic due to our fist single ‘Mosquitoes’ gruesome lyrics.
The fiasco ended up fitting quite well with the lyrics to ‘Pirates’ as well though.
Us yelling ‘it’s summer and sad-people-town!’ into the cold, dark August sky.
Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?
Throughout the music video, in the way it was shot, edited and coloured we wanted to establish contrast, two differing sides.
Visually I’m on one side of the video and Timo’s on the other. By covering half of the screen on either side you would see one version, one perspective of the same story. And they are two similar but slightly different stories. Same with the colours; in colour grading (my first time colour grading by the way, I’m just a Singer-Songwriter with a hobby) we highlighted the greens and the reds and basically got rid of any other colour.
Green and red specifically to abstain the dramatics of complementary colours, to further accentuate that ‘similar but slightly different’ mood. Another inspiration for the colour scheme were the movies Amélie and Moonrise Kingdom that by using similar tones establish the mellow summer mood we were aiming for.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
Basically two grumpy assholes loving each other despite life working its mysterious ways. The love described in both song and video is not tender at all. It’s distant and rude. And it’s still very true and deeply rooted. It’s a friendship titled ‘I don’t get you and you’re a bit of a prick but I know you and I see you‘, two pirates on the vast, calm sea.
Interview by Karla Harris