A thrum of activity surrounds the stage as On Video test the visuals for the first incarnation of their set-up (involving four vintage TV sets with images, clips and strobing colour synchronised to each song).
Moments earlier, ahead of their first headline gig upstairs at the Camden Assembly Room, I sat down for a pint with lifelong friends George (bass) and Hass (guitar and vocals)…
How long have you guys been making music together?
George: Me and Hass have known each other since we were kids. We’ve been playing together for quite a few years in previous projects. But as On Video…
Hass: We had our first gig as On Video in April this year. We played a couple of gigs before that without a name. We were going to be called ‘Goodies’ but realised there was a TV show called that… It’s been about a year and a bit that we’ve been writing together as On Video.
If you had to, how would you sum up your sound using just one word?
Hass: *laughs* It’s way too hard to do in just one word! I really wanted to say something ironically over the top but I don’t know if it will work…
George: Go on, what were you going to say?
Hass: I was going to say ‘Pow!’ like in an old camp batman. If that word can be framed in a batman style speech bubble then that would be us…
…A bit Pop Art Liechtenstein perhaps? Bringing to mind power and punchiness?
George: With very camp undertones.
2019 was a busy year for On Video with a Summer tour and debut EP release. What’s in store for 2020?
George: We’re in talks about that at the moment. There’s going to be more songs definitely. But in what form we are not too certain.
Hass: I’m happy to do another EP at the moment – I’m a big fan of bands’ early EPs I think they’re often the most interesting part of a band. They’re usually free of worrying about stuff.
I want to do another EP as one collective body of work. Other people have other ideas. The way streaming works, it’s more effective to release singles to get your sound out there.
That’s OK but I find it a bit frustrating that the collective work, the EP / the album, seem to be suffering at the idea you have to get just one track out and get the most out of that and wait two months before you can release again.
For me especially, when I listen to a band, I like to put on an album and walk to it; go on the tube to it and you start to get a feel for the atmosphere of the band and to get an idea of what they might be like live.
I love the illustrations on your four singles so far. I feel like two of them are of Charles Bukowski and Princess Leia in boxing gloves. Am I right? What was the decision making behind the artwork?
Hass: She does look like Princess Leia, she’s got the buns! It’s actually a British female boxer Barbara Buttrick who is… like 80 years old? [She’s 89!] She was the first female boxer to have a televised fight in the UK. She got inducted into the boxing hall of fame around the same time as Muhammed Ali. In the early 40s around the time that she was boxing, there was a BBC special as it was really unheard of. She’s essentially saying a big ‘fuck you’ to everyone who said she couldn’t box. I found that really inspiring.
We used Bukowski because he’s mentioned in the lyric – I googled him and found an Italian artist I’d never heard of called Graziano Origa Ritratti who’s like a punk pop-artist. He made a bunch of work that’s made to be manipulated and reproduced. We decided to take what he’d done and replicate it ourselves. The first is by him, the next three were commissioned by us. We tried to mimic that style and do a poets series – poets who have influenced our writing.
The next one is Emily Dickinson. It was going to be Muhammed Ali – who is a poet in a way. I became obsessed with his magnetism and personality. When I was reading about him I came across Barbara Buttrick and it seemed like a better idea, fitting in with the story of the video for “Adversary”.
I was wondering if they were hints to the literary influences you have – but it sounds like there’s also a kind of loop back to the ‘On Video’ theme with the Barbara Buttrick’s story there – very cool!
Hass: I’m a big fan of the Smiths’ album and single covers – the way Morrissey and Marr chose all the imagery of film stars and models themselves, it changed the way album artwork was done.
The video for “Adversary” is genius – depicting a couple of newlyweds squaring up to each other in the boxing ring – what’s the story here?
H: For the video for Adversary, originally I wanted it to be me and George fighting in a ring. George would have been in a wedding dress.
G: I’m very glad that didn’t happen. *both laugh*
H: Then we spoke to our director and he said it’s really hard to choreograph a fight scene and he put us in touch with real some actors – now it works really well. Our director did a great job of it.
It got me thinking about the meaning behind the song – who’s got commitment issues in the band? Can you tell me a little bit about the making of the song?
Hass: Thematically with the lyrics – the way I write music is I get the sound first and then I write lyrics. Sometimes you’ll say something really stupid when you’re writing a song and you’re like ‘oh God, I can’t say that’, so you have to try to find a way to work an idea in.
The first time I wrote that song I was singing ‘anniversary’ and I thought maybe it should be about weddings. Bit corny though, right?
It made me think about what it’s like to be wedded to someone. When you meet someone, you’re with someone that you’re really getting on with but there’s that sense that somewhere down the line they may be your next opponent. I’m quite interested in the very thin dividing line between love and the way it can slip into… the opposite.
Musically, who in the band brings the most eclectic and unexpected influences to the band?
H: I think part of what makes us hopefully something interesting for the future is that we get on well but we also clash well. We have very opposite tastes as well as connecting ones. I’d say George is probably like aesthetically the person I always go to to give things a listen.
G: I think that’s because we’ve been in bands in the past together, our musical tastes are probably quite close. Our drummer Yuli listens to classical and all sorts.
H: I always go to George to ask him if this demo sounds good, or this artwork idea is good. Usually, if George says it’s good, I trust it!
G: Awww.
H: If Neil says it, I don’t – joking! *laughs*
Have you guys been looking at your Spotify Wrapped? Comparing artists of the decade?
H: Parquet courts was my artist of the year. I got Kings of Leon for my artist of the decade – but the reasons it’s so high is it is the only album I’ve downloaded so I listen to it on the way to work and back on the tube!
G: I haven’t looked but I hope mine will be Cate Le Bon, or British Sea Power!
What are you most excited about performing tonight? Any new material for fans to listen out for?
G: Yeah it’s very different. It’s our first gig where we’re not playing a support set. We’ve had to double the length. We’ve had to learn quite a few new songs in the last couple of months which has been challenging but great to have them in the bag. It’s our longest set that we’ve ever done and our first set with full visuals as well. Yuli, our drummer, has created it all. It’s going to be different.
H: We had to basically double our set time, most of our songs are on average 2.5 minutes long.
Going back to the ‘Pow!’ theme.
H: We are equally looking forward to and dreading playing some of our set but I think it’ll go well. Our latest release is “temporary secretary”, which is a Paul McCartney song from Paul McCartney II.
Are you hoping to get called up for a guest appearance during his Glastonbury headline set next year?
H: No! When we saw that was announced we were already in the process of recording it, so we were like, ‘Oh, this is serendipitous.’ It’s a song we regularly listen to when we’re chilling together and we think it’s amazing, so I’m looking forward to playing it tonight.
It brings something a bit different to your sound with the synth arpeggiator in there?
H: Definitely, Yuli drums with an SPD so we always can do that and in the future, we’ll be doing stuff that involved a lot more samples and stuff so it’s a good way to branch out. It’s interesting and weird and a bit left field.
Now, what can fans look forward to that you’ve got coming up?
Hass: Next year, we’re doing a tour with the Night Café in April and we’re dropping a new single in late February. Off the back of that, if I get my way, another EP with 3 tracks altogether. We have new stuff recorded and ready to go so I’m excited!
More tracks to check out:
Ghee – how is this not a hit yet?
Clap Trap – “”
Past Tense – catchy riffs galore.
