The video for Black Out The Sun is the music video Darren 'has always wanted to make'.
How do you shoot a clip for a song that most people who've heard the new album 'Secret Codes and Battleships' agree defines the sound of the album? You hire a huge soundstage, vintage camera lenses from the widescreen era of Hollywood and you work with a long term collaborator. Darren Hayes has created a piece of film that fits perfectly the cinematic sound of his new album.
Written with Carl Falk in Sweden, and recorded the day Michael Jackson died - the song is a beautiful black rose of love lost. The lyrics speak of a barren world as cold as the Swedish winters that Producer Carl Falk grew up in.
"Now all the love's gone, and nothing grows here, and I just feel wrong. So Black Out The Sun. And all that we shared, will slowly disappear. There's a hole where my soul used to grow so just Black Out The Sun
Darren explains the inspiration behind the video - a family affair directed by Grant Marshall and featuring choreography by his sister Claire Marshall - both from Darren's home town of Brisbane Australia.
"Black Out The Sun is a song about not wanting to be in a world without love. The idea that you could simply switch the sun off and the ground would turn to poison because all the things that made it beautiful were really in the reflection of the eyes of the person you've lost. I had this idea to show my demons depicted almost like human crows - jackals stalking my every step, waiting for me to lose hope and give up. But I never would".
Cue choreographer Claire Marshall - herself a veteran of Savage Garden and Darren Hayes concert tours, who created a language of movement and cast dancers who interacted and supported a performance that Darren says was ." very much inspired by the widescreen music videos shot in the 1980's, when cinema and film were beginning to inform MTV". Claire's award winning choreography provides a stark and surreal counterpoint to the heartfelt performance Darren pours into the camera.
Darren wrote the idea for the treatment and sent it to his longtime collaborator - Australian based film maker Grant Marshall - to help realise his vision.
The two first collaborated on Darren's 'Crush (1980 Me)' video in 2002 and again on the same album's 'I Miss You' to later shoot several live DVD's including the infamous documentary 'Too Close For Comfort'. To say he and Darren have a history is an understatement. They're practically cousins.
Grant hired a soundstage at Village Roadshow studios in Queensland where big budget films like Peter Pan and the Chronicles of Narnia were shot. With one of the largest cinematic projectors used and a host of surreal and stunning footage of natural phenomena, it showcases what is essentially a very raw performance. Albeit dogged by demons.
Perhaps the most trainspotter factoid about the video is that it was shot using vintage anamorphic lenses from the 1970's - the type of lenses used to shoot films like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. "We wanted a widescreen sound for the album and we achieved it. So we needed a widescreen cinema feel for the video too. "
Check out the video for 'Black Out The Sun' HERE. The single will be released in the UK October 2nd. Pre-order and bundle details coming soon!
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