A Luton band have returned with their latest single which is the first instalment in a planned trilogy exploring different aspects of parenthood and an accompanying video DIY-filmed video shot at locations around the town.
ScreamingMechanicalBrain released their single ‘Freckles’ a fortnight ago through Luton record label Vandalism Begins At Home Records, and now a new video is offering a visual interpretation of a deeply personal song.
The video was filmed at Harvey’s, which is part of the Four Horseshoes pub on Park Street and Stockwood Park, with bassist Richard Davies taking on the challenge of directing and editing the project himself, using nothing but a mobile phone to capture the footage.
The band are known for their epic and sprawling songs and as this track clocks in at 11 minutes and 30 seconds, the music video could even be considered a short film.
“We were talking about getting a video for ‘Freckles’ and I offered to try my hand at filming and editing it as I’ve made lyric videos in the past for my other band and wanted to see if I could push myself creatively with a full music video,” said Davies.
“We were lucky enough to get to use Harvey’s in Luton for the whole day to record all of the band shots. I got some cheap lighting, a gimbal and some other equipment from Tim [Kramer – music producer] at Signal House Studios and I convinced the wife to help film us for the day (of which she did an amazing job – she didn’t tell me to say that by the way!). It was a lot of fun and lots of hard work but definitely worth it.”
The decision to film at Stockwood Park was also driven by the song’s subject matter. Freckles takes its name from vocalist Nik Scott’s nickname for his eldest daughter and explores how becoming a parent can change the way someone thinks about their past.
Scott said: “The song explores the idea of regret and the familiar hypothetical question of what might happen if people could go back through their lives and make different choices.
“There’s a common thought process amongst people where we consider the concept of time travel, or a ‘do-over’. We think back through our lives looking at regrets and at what we could have done differently if we were given the chance to take a different path.
“We think about how much better our life could be if we had made different decisions. But I have found that I haven’t gone through that thought process since my daughter was born, not once. This is entirely down to the Butterfly Effect in a directly personal way.
“If I were to change even the smallest decision somewhere in my past then I might still have a daughter, but they wouldn’t be the same person. She would be a stranger to me. So it is no longer an option”.
Davies wanted to bring that relationship into the video itself by including footage of Scott and his daughter together.
“As the song is about Nik’s daughter, I wanted to include her in the video so I recorded some more footage of her and Nik at the park, which was another fun day out filming,” the bassist-turned-filmmaker said.
The result is a self-produced video which Davies hopes demonstrates that a lack of expensive equipment need not prevent musicians from bringing their ideas to life.
“The whole video was recorded using a phone and it was all very DIY with a very limited budget so it just goes to show that with some basic equipment, some good ideas and a bunch of great people to help, anything is possible. It’s homemade. It’s honest.”
Musically, ‘the track ‘Freckles’ continues ScreamingMechanicalBrain’s cinematic approach, combining soaring vocals, expansive guitars and a driving groove.
Recorded at Signal House Studios with Kramer, the single also draws on an unexpected influence, with guitarist Ash Clark revealing that his main riff was inspired by the way post-punk band Killing Joke used music from director Stanley Kubrick’s final ever film to introduce their live performances.
“Killing Joke are a band that really fascinate me,” Clark said, adding: “For their live shows they used to come out to a track that’s from the soundtrack to the film ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. It was such an effective way to start a gig and left such an impression on me that it influenced the main riff for ‘Freckles’.”
The band describe the track as an “antithesis to regret”, celebrating the building blocks of life while exploring the way seemingly insignificant decisions can ultimately shape everything that follows.
What comes next for ScreamingMechanicalBrain is the Luton rockers using their increasingly ambitious sound to explore the subject from different perspectives.
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Watch the ‘Freckles’ music video here:
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