Over the last twenty years, the fringes of experimental outposts like noise rock, post-hardcore, math rock have produced a complicated landscape – these days you have to be clearer than ever depending who you’re talking to. If you call a band one of those things, you can be sure someone else will call it one of the other two things.
For most music fans, that’s part of the charm. It adds to the overall conversation when genres like these are populated with bands explicitly defiant of easy comparison, whether they’re shooting for originality, authenticity, catharsis, or something in between. Flesh Produce is one of those rare examples of an act seemingly going for all of the above which is obviously exciting, but that’s not the only thing that makes them unique.
In a word, the Seattle duo sounds futuristic compared to most bands you might have inferred from the intro’s genre tags. Their Hyper Chasm LP, due June 05 via CorpoCat records, is sure to win over anyone curious – it has ambient ArcTanGent moments, nasty punk and post-hardcore moments, cranked up IDM moments, and a lot more, so of course we’re stoked to help premier the following video for “1040 RPM.”
Oh, also, it strobes, so please, don’t watch it if you’re epileptic or don’t like intense flashing lights. Just look away with the volume up.
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Even when it’s glowing and pulsing to a steady beat, it sounds mean as hell, and as you could probably tell a lot went into the video itself – here’s the lowdown on the process according to vocalist Myla Profitt:
“I had never tried storyboarding a video before, but one of my first memories is riding in the back of my parents’ car, listening to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and I remember seeing a highly detailed video play out in my head. These visuals are responsible for me falling in love with music in the first place. I hadn’t ever tried to notate what I was seeing, but I figured I’d give it my best shot with 1040 RPM.
Stylistically, it’s inspired by films like Skinamarink, Enter the Void, Fight Club, as well as Meat Dept.’s animation work for Igorrr, and 90s family portraits.
The song is so liminal that we needed a large empty space that felt forgotten. We figured there was no better spot than Quality Flea Center, an abandoned QFC reclaimed by artists and punks. They’ve managed to re-instill purpose into another warm and dry space left empty due to smaller margins of profit.
Josh and the team at Quality Flea Center were kind enough to hook us up with a super affordable rate and were incredible to work with.
We often have a penny-pinching but scrappy attitude when it comes to our band fund, due to our personal bank accounts screaming, “YOU’RE BROKE.” So we only gave ourselves 5 hours to shoot it.
In the process of finding a videographer, we were told our budget was too small, and we couldn’t shoot the thing in only 5 hours. Needless to say, we kept looking.
It took an embarrassing amount of time to realize that I was already working with two incredible creators, Pearl Mei Lam and Tommy Heffernan, on an independent feature-length absurd comedy titled “Wild Ragers,” for which I am composing half of the film’s music. We had Tommy (WR’s Director of photography) shoot the video, and Pearl (WR’s Writer Director, and Lead Actress) do the edit.
Due to Tommy’s supreme talent for finding angles fast, we managed to capture everything we needed in time. And thanks to Pearl’s eye and impeccable taste, she made it look so much better than we had pictured it. Although we did make sure to utilize Karl’s Chopping skills to cut the video in time with the song’s profuse glitching.
We had an amazingly talented team of artists who put hands on the thing and are super stoked on how it turned out! This is our first ever music video, and we hope you like it!… or, are scared of it?”
If you prefer the old days of easy genre tangents, understandably Flesh Produce might not be up your particularly alley. But if you’re looking for something fresh, we’re with you, so don’t forget to pre-order the record here.
(Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, the PCRF, Charity Water, Kindness Ranch, One Tail at A Time, Canopy Cat Rescue, or Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more – click on their names above to check ‘em out if you’re so inclined. Thanks again!)