Last summer, we dived headfirst down the rabbit hole of the trippy, radioactive universe of Melodie Saviour – the English alt-rock band, and alter-ego of illustrious actor Maxim Baldry. A social outcast with ambitions of performing to the masses, the short film engulfed us in his anxieties, hopes and dreams.
And now, Melodie Saviour is back, this time with a live musical exploration, titled Melodie Loves His Benitone Alpine-1677, “a love song to a mechanical fan”. Yes, you heard right.
The haunting and sinister visuals throw us once again back into his disconcerting world – we caught up with Maxim Baldry, and the director Jasper Cable-Alexander below…
So what has happened to our protagonist the last time we saw him in your short film last year?
This film is our first project together as a band. The video begins with Melodie asleep in the back of a car. He wakes up and hears music. He follows the music out of the car, down the street and into a studio where the rest of the band are stood looking at him.
Will you explain the name of the song?
Melodie Loves His Benitone Alpine-1677 is a love song to a mechanical fan. I found this old soviet fan in the attic and wrote a song about it. I guess we wanted to explore the absurdity of relationships and how much of a hold they can have over you.
Where did you get inspiration for the short from?
The inspiration for the film came from a rehearsal in the studio. We were playing through some of our songs and thought it would be cool to record a song live and film it. Melodie Loves His Benitone Alpine-1677 has a strong narrative and story so we thought it would lend itself best to be explored visually.
And did the concept for the film come before or after the song?
Our director, Jasper Cable-Alexander, came up with the concept of the video. He said, “the song is weird, let’s make the performance even weirder”. It’s kinda half live-music-session, half acid trip. There’s a lot of red, psychedelic influences throughout the film.
What what was the biggest challenge in creating this music video?
Jasper was interested in the live aspect of this project. So the hardest part was not fucking up the performance since it was being recorded live. We only had time for a few attempts but think the messiness is what makes it authentic and real.
What’s next for you/what are you excited about?
We’re actually off to Sweden this week for a live-session and then we’re supporting San Cisco when they’re over in Europe. Come see us in London on the 20th May at Lafayette.
Jasper: So for me shooting live brings an element of tension to set. I love putting a certain pressure on cast and crew that’s why I only really shoot film. In this case we shot both film and digital. Shooting live also gives us great creative freedom as there’s only really so much we can do in the pre-production.