‘From What the Never Was’ is the latest major digital commission from Phoenix Central Park, starring the Australian cult favourites of experimental rock LIARS. This new interstellar horror music video places frontman Angus Andrew, drummer Laurence Pike and guitarist Cameron Deyell on a ship in deep space when things go awry.
Reimagining the futuristic interiors of Phoenix as the innards of a doomed space craft, director Clemens Habicht makes playful nods to the melodrama of classic sci-fi tropes while creating the perfect aesthetic complement to the drama of Andrew's syncopated vocals and hypnotic guitarlines. "Only Liars would entertain and embrace my trepanning fantasies…” writes Habicht. "Angus and his crew are subjected to the traumas and melodramas of classic sci-fi tropes, brutalised by the sadism of scenes from films I think I was probably way too young to have seen as a kid."
The film was imagined as a prequal to ‘Sekwar’ in which Angus is a worn out castaway somewhere in space and ‘Big Appetite’ where he transcends this mortal coil. For Andrew, 'From What the Never Was’ is intended as a moment of recollection within the narrative of The Apple Drop. "It's a point that our traveller has reached which is far from the starting place, but also right back there in memory. The drum sound was appropriated from an old song called ‘We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own’. In that track, the protagonist is drunk on delusions of grandeur, relishing the power of destruction. Now far removed, that character is weary, remorseful. "
The single appears on Liars' forthcoming album The Apple Drop, to be released by Mute on 6 August 2021.
Director Clemens Habicht
Producer Michaela Le
Executive Producer Zaina Ahmed
COLLIDER
DOP Tyson Perkins
1st AC Jasmine Suivi
2nd AC Tane Palise
Gaffer Matt Wilson
Gaffer assist Steve Burns
Art Director Cloe Jouine
Art Assist Claire Gravas
Standby Props Clint Cure
Wardrobe Mary Pearson Andrew
Wardrobe Assist Margot Bayles
Runner Albert Li, Alfie Faber
Colourist Matt Fezz
3D Tom Mannion, Hugh Carrick-Allen
Commissioned by Phoenix Central Park
EP & Creative Director Beau Neilson
Creative & Technical Director Angus Hunt
Head of Digital Joshua Milch
Liars — From What the Never Was
New Digital Commission
Space | Action / SMOULDER
Team: Carla Zimbler, Sumn Conduit, Nicholas Meredith, Victoria Hunt & John Carolan
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