One of the best parts about the lead-up to the release of Royal Blood’s sophomore effort How Did We Get So Dark?, which is due out this Friday (June 16), has been the release of their new music video.
Right out the gate, the British duo turned a lot of heads with the video for “Lights Out.” (You know…the one with all the sexy “wall swimming?”) Unsurprisingly, the clip was truly a long labor of love, according to bassist/singer Mike Kerr, who dropped a number of fun facts about the video in a recent conversation with WMMR’s Jaxon and Sara:
“Music videos are hard. It’s always a gamble, but this video was the idea from these two guys who call themselves Sacred Egg. They’re a production company, and they had this whole concept worked out, and they had it for a long time. To be honest with you, for those guys to want to work with us was a much bigger deal. They make one video a year, and they win mad awards. They’re the best…So, they showed us the video idea, and it was just wild…It was really fun to make. We did it in Kosovo…None of it is CGI. That was the thing that turned us on about it is that it’s like an illusion they made by having this tank of white water, which was actually coffee cream, by the way. They put everything in the room on stills so it appears that it’s all floating. Super ambitious and creative!”
So, just how long did filming last? Definitely more than your average video:
“They were filming for, like, five days. Our kind of involvement…we were there for…I think we did like 17 hours straight, and they got everything they needed from us. They did a lot of shooting and extra shots, and they had to rebuild the whole set…They looked so stressed!”
Anyone would be stressed when trying to capture that many angles of that many swimming extras on top of (we assume) having to change out the coffee creamer tank which had to have started to smell after a certain amount of time.
Currently, Royal Blood is on a brief and rare break from the road but are returning to the United States for select dates, including a couple shows opening for Guns N’ Roses, starting in August.
To listen to this interview in its entirety, head over to WMMR.com.
Erica Banas is a rock/classic rock blogger. The first man she ever loved was Jack Daniel. (True story.)