In Born Ruffian’s ‘Nova Leigh’ video an unidentified jogger sets off running through the streets. As he passes, people draw back in horror. What are they’re looking at? Is it Gary Glitter on his morning run…or something much, much worse?
Inspired by Jeremy Olson’s Cubist style sleeve artwork and beautifully shot on location in Ontario, Canada, the video was directed by Jared Raab, who also worked on the short for Ruffians’ previous single ‘What To Say’.
SUPERSWEET got in touch with Luke Lalonde (guitar/vocals) to find out about his insomnia, why they went ‘back to Raab’ and ask, what the hell is going on with that guy’s face?! Once we’d calmed down a bit we also spoke to Jared Raab to found out why Born Ruffians are a “director’s dream”…
THE DIRECTOR: JARED RAAB
SS: Can you give us a summary of the story of the video?
Jared Raab: Early on, before the concept for the 'What to Say' video had materialized, the Ruffians has actually said something along the lines of, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to do a video based on the album art." I guess that got the wheels turning and I started to wonder if there was a way to take this idea of a fragmented, distorted face and turn it into a real human character. We worked with AlphaChannel FX to realize our initial sketches of a reclusive jogger character with a geometrically challenged face. I've attached some early concept art that shows how we managed to get pretty close to it with the final effects.
SS: Tell us more about Jeremy Olson and how the multi-faceted face has to do with the story? How involved was he in the making of the video?
Jared: The video was inspired by Jeremy's paintings, but he was not actually involved in the shooting. When it was finished, I sent him an e-mail. He really liked it and appreciated that it wasn't such a literal interpretation, but admitted to being apprehensive when he first read that I had done a video inspired by his paintings. He probably pictured some cheesy kaleidoscopic 70s dance party. Which, come to think of it, is a great idea for their next video!
SS: What stood out most in the song when creating the storyboard?
Jared: 'Nova-Leigh', and in fact any of the Ruffian's songs are a music video director's dream. There is such a huge dynamic range in their music, full of staccato stops and starts and shifts in tone, that we had a lot of fun playing around with pace and tempo. The way the schedule worked out, we were forced to shoot the band completely separate from the narrative components. At first we were really worried about it, with the two shoots being an entire month apart. But going into the studio with the band a month later, we had a rough cut finished and knew exactly what was needed to make the video work. A total blessing in disguise. For example, some shots that were complete accidents from the first shoot became really impressive built-in transitions. Don't tell anyone.
SS: Did you have any input from the band?
Jared: We had discussed the video beforehand, and they helped me to pick from a few different concepts that I pitched them, but for the most part they were trusting me to make it work. I don't think they saw a single frame until it was almost finished, and ironically my fear was that they would think it was too "conventional." The first video had been such a strange and eccentric idea that I actually worried that I had made their second video from the album too main-stream looking.
THE BAND: BORN RUFFIANS' LUKE LALONDE
SS: What's the tale or concept being told in 'Nova Leigh'?
Luke Lalonde (vocals, guitar): I think this song was written around a period of not sleeping very well. It's about the state of mind you push yourself into from lack of sleep and being alone with your thoughts etc...
SS: Is there a particular video that Jared made in the past that made you decide to go with him? If not, why did you choose him?
Luke: We chose Jared to make the video for 'What to Say' based on a strong treatment and an overall faith in Jared's abilities as a film maker. We decided to go back to him for 'Nova-Leigh' because the first video was received really well and we were very pleased with it. I want to say something cheesy with a real intent to be genuine like: "Jared is a shining star that will only burn brighter with time!"
SS: Have you any interesting trivia about in the making of the song?
Luke: The odd time signatures come from Steve misinterpreting my guitar part and forcing a very odd rhythm into his drumming that I was excited by. Instead of trying to fix it, or to teach him what I had intended we decided the "mistake" was better than the intended 4/4 part and that we'd embrace it. This happens a lot in our songwriting.
The name of the song has nothing to do with the video. Phil, who works for Warp UK was visiting Toronto and came to the studio with his new-born daughter (Nova-Leigh). After attempting the song a few times prior to her arrival we hoped that she'd be our good luck charm in nailing a take, which we did (this was back in the day, when getting a song down to tape in one take was the way). We didn't have a title for the song that was any good and we wanted to give a gift to Phil and his darling wife for their newborn baby so we named the song after her.
Words: Isaac Howlett