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On March 1st, the mighty Late Of The Pier return with the 12” and download only single 'Best In The Class'.
A first for LOTP, the band's very own Sam Potter directed the music video alongside Steve Glashier and it features vertigo-inducing camera work, attractive young ladies and Sam's very own grandma.
Gigwise duly caught up with Sam to ask him a few questions about his impressive directorial debut.
GW: How did you come up with the idea for the video?
SP: “I heard in the intro a kind of whirring, spinning sound like it was a clockwork song being wound up. So bored one night I strapped a camera to a turntable and shot my girlfriend and her sister dancing around it, the actual footage was a blur of sisterly love, something equal parts hypnotic and dizzy. When it came round to filming it I think we almost had too many girls. At first I was playing with the idea of each spin being a year of a persons life, starting with spinning babies and ending up with my grandma but most of our fans happen to be beautiful girls and in hindsight it's a lot nicer to look at now.”
GW: Does your grandma like your music?
SP: “She says she does but she doesn't have the best hearing, perhaps it feels nice rippling against her thin skin.”
GW: How did the rest of the band feel about the fact that none of them are in it?
SP: “With this video we had a chance to make 3 minutes worth of something engaging and fun. When you boil it down, we'd just be 4 faces amongst a lot of much prettier ones. We've laid off the press a lot because we want the music to be about the music, and with this video we wanted the video to be about the video. Celebrity culture is ugly and I wanted to make a video that was attractive.”
GW: The video seems very well done for a debut, did you have much help?
SP: “We had a lot of help from every angle, people for faces, people for camera's, people for clothes, people everywhere and these people we'd like to thank very much!”
GW: Will you be directing any more videos for Late of the Pier or anyone else?
SP: “As a band we came together with ideas for everything, and to channel ideas through video and art as well as music is really healthy. We're lucky enough to have met some really interesting people over the last few years and we wish to make the most of it. We like the idea of presenting Late of the Pier as more of an ideas factory than just a band. Between the four of us we're trying to be as free as possible so expect everything from music video's to one-off events and even some music (if you look hard enough to find it)!”
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