Speaking with Max Knoth of The Skinny Limbs on their latest MV for the title track, ‘Jade’
There are a few times when a song and its corresponding music video are harmoniously intertwined. The lyrics with the visuals, the message with the concept, and the sound with the semblance. Yet the music video for The Skinny Limbs title track ‘Jade’ does it seamlessly, laced with subtle complexities and delineations of stunningly familiar feelings… Jaded. Worn out or wearied, overworked, or overused, drained or depleted. The music video encapsulates all these emotions and more, taking the audience through the mundanes of life by manipulating setting, lighting and symbolism efficaciously, in the release of their fourth official music video.
What does the song Jade really mean to you, and how does this correlate to the vision you had when creating the music video?
Max: We were going for a really euphoric, but also chaotic feel for the music video and we wanted to create an ambience of feeling Jaded and feeling stuck in your daily routine which is what was shown in the verse shots. We actually shot in an Airbnb that we rented out, which is where we filmed all the cooking shots and me looking bored and out of it, we really wanted to convey “I’m just tired of the daily grind and my routine.”
You mentioned that a song that was particularly special and resonated with you was your latest single “Jade” - that at the time wasn’t yet released - which you detailed as a song that explores the feeling of being tired of your everyday mundane routine. Have you found that fans have also shared that appreciation and have resonated with that message as well?
Max: I think so, yeah. I think that was a good song for everyone to resonate with during the pandemic where everyone’s daily routines were just thrown off. I think it’s fun too because, especially in the music video we wanted to make the chorus, and studio shoot very bright and energetic, and it made for this very nice dichotomy between the two phases of the song.
You make an interesting point with covid and the quarantine period - did you find as an artist that you got stuck in creative ruts or was it a time where you were able to explore your sound and the visions you had for the band? How did you cope through quarantine and what blossomed through that?
Max: That’s tough, I think it was a great time to take a step back as a band and find our sound and what really works for us and work on rebranding. I expected there to be a tonne of “I’m at home all day for months on end I’ll be able to make so many songs,” but I didn’t feel like a huge creative outburst. I had to work with what I had. I had certain moods and at certain times I would go really hard on writing.
What was the process of creating the music video, could you take us through the creative direction or the steps you had to take especially during a pandemic?
Max: We first shot the verse scenes where I'm cooking and doing my daily routine at the Airbnb and that was a pretty small team that was just our videographer Troy and then the guys in the band. It was a pretty flow of thought kind of process; we were pretty loose with the plans for the video. But I knew for sure that I wanted to have the Airbnb shot where I was looking in the mirror and things were getting kind of woozy - that was one of the ideas - Or the cooking shots or spilling coffee or getting toothpaste on my shirt when I’m getting ready for work so we did that actually in September and then it actually took us until late November to do the studio shoot because it took a little while to pull everything together. And that was a bit of a larger team for that one, I think there were like 10 people on set. Yeah, it was interesting to try to work on a shoot like that, it was definitely the biggest shoot we had done since the pandemic, so I think there were a few, little obstacles to work around and our buddy Troy killed it!
What is it like on set when working with your two brothers and a close family friend? Is it a comfortable and upbeat environment?
It feels very comfortable, kinda just like a bunch of buddies goofing around on set. Definitely, the way we roll with it, we have our main ideas then we rely on spur of the moment, ideas or lighting or a certain part of the set or prop. Which can definitely have its downfalls if you’re not careful. Our buddy Troy likes to plan things out which I try to roll with as much as possible and try to plan things out, but with music videos, I’m a little bit more chaotic and spur of the moment.
How does Jade differ from previous music videos such as ‘Persistence’?
Persistence was a very thorough, storyboarded video. We had almost a shot-by-shot plan and a very set narrative that I think was supposed to tell a very specific story, and I think we did a very good job of that. Whereas Jade’s video was a lot more about conveying a certain feeling or mood or the two sets of feelings and trying to work with that more than just telling a specific story.
The music video was directed by yourself and Troy Spoelma, but overall was it a collaborative creative process?
We had a few meetings between Me, Jake, Nate and Mitch. We did a few meetings trying to figure out what we wanted so we could come to Troy with a video idea. But mainly it was shooting mood board back and forth with troy and working with certain colour palettes trying to find an Airbnb location. But the band definitely helped a lot on set, and they would come up with ideas like “we should use this prop” or “we can throw this shot in,” I think there is a shot that made it into the video where there is a mirror on the ground, Nate and Mitch pioneered that idea. It was a crooked mirror and troy had to work really hard to get it so he wasn’t in the shot as well with me but that was one of those spurs of the moment ones.
Going off of that, was there a lightbulb moment where you knew “this is what we want for the music video, this is the direction we want to take this” or was it mostly going off of the idea of the mundane and falling into the cycles of routine?
I think the daily routine, tiredness and wooziness were always in the conversation. I don’t know at what point exactly it was when we had the idea to throw the bed into the studio, I think that was just one of our meetings where once that was said it was one of those “Omg that would be crazy.” I had just never seen a shoot like that, where there is just a bed where someone is lying in and then gets up just jumping around and has a band playing around him. That was just a pretty essential idea for the chorus.
With that in mind, what would you say is harder, writing a song or creating an idea for a music video and carrying out that process?
For me, it comes way more naturally to write a song and I understand the production elements for that a lot more. I’m a little bit of a noob when it comes to videos, but my brother Nate and Troy obviously have a lot more experience and I think they tried to blend the seams with my process because it is a little bit more clunky. I have ideas but I didn’t know how to pitch them to Troy, he would say “you will have problems if you try to do that kind of shot,” or “these two colours that you want to do won’t go together.” Things like that, both guys helped to blend out my vision.
You said you had the idea of putting the bed in the studio and that you had never really seen that before, but apart from that Did you have any music videos that you drew inspiration from or any particular artist whose music videos you love or resonate with?
Max: I think one of my main ones we really liked and drew a little bit of inspiration from was a video by Ralph Castelli, where he had this shot of his friend wearing a mirror around a necklace, and it was a shot of his friend’s torso with him singing in the background and it was just a really cool reflection. We really liked how that kind of just had a loose feel and the reflection, I think it was for his song Mystery. We knew we wanted to do a lot of mirrors and a lot of shifty, kaleidoscope effects and try to blend some of those mundane shots into the music video.
What do you personally think about the role of a music video in relation to a song, do you think that having a strong music video can make a song just a little bit more special?
Max: I think having a strong music video can solidify the same feeling people get when listening to the song, which is what we tried to do here. But I think you can also get really weird with music videos too and that’s what’s so awesome! I see a lot of people do something for a music video and it seems unrelated to the song or at least what I personally got from the song and then you get a way different feel from the music video. I think it is pretty fun to through loops at people and confuse them with a video. I think we gave everyone a bit of a similar feeling to what they get with the song but also had some fun with it.
You mentioned that during quarantine it was a time to rebrand your band and go back to that true process, do you believe your music videos also reflect your artistic growth as a band?
Max: Oh yeah, for sure! We were really excited, I think it must have been early 2020 right as the pandemic was starting, we started talking to Troy he was pretty excited about putting together a certain music video for one of our new songs. We had never really worked with someone before, we had just done everything ourselves - Loops, little animations, small scale stuff. So it has really blossomed working with Troy, it’s been a lot of work, time and resources so it’s pretty scary. Being a small band putting that much money and time you get scared that things may not work out but I’m really proud of how everything has turned out so far with the past two videos.
We’ve already spoken about it a few times today, but the mirror was used in a variety of different shots, was this an intentional motif and if so, What does it symbolise to you?
Max: I think in the video we were trying to convey how many times we look in the mirror at ourselves during our routines and how if you let your eyes go out of focus or if you just stare through you get this weird portal almost to another dimension or field of consciousness. We really like the play of that along with the lights that we used, it was a really fun combo to try and get those mirror shots at a good angle while also using that kaleidoscope effect. That was something that once we started filming, we were like “oh yeah we want to have a lot of shots of this in the video.”
Just off the back of that question were there any other stylistic or aesthetic approaches you want to draw the fans attention to?
Max: I was super excited to shoot in the studio and get a lot of very bright oranges and purples. I really like the shot where its switching between Me, Nate, Jake and Mitch in front of the folding, change screen. It was on set, and we thought we could use that, and it was cool as well as the plants and TV. I like when they are all playing, and it is switching between quick shots of them with their instruments. But it was really fun to dial in our colour scheme in the studio and those shots are super exciting.
You have mentioned colour a lot, was the use of colour and the variety of colour an intentional decision or was it a planned stylistic choice?
I think some of it happened on the fly, but for sure during the Airbnb shoot we were trying to have everything muted, a lot of browns and a lot of muted greens. And we wanted to shock the viewer once the shots pop over to the studio, you get a lot of bright oranges and purples and shock you into a different part of the song, you know it’s a different part of the song, you know there is a different mood going on and just kind of trying to draw a lot of attention that way.
And to round everything off, is there anything currently in the works that we can be expecting anytime soon?
Yeah, we’ve talked to Troy a little bit. We might try and do a little lyric video for one of the other songs. We do have another song in the works probably this summer, it's sounding like a summer song!