Death in Venice
Bondage gear, nudity, cling film and head shaving all feature in the latest video from Fabricators. 'Honeymoon In Venice' is a wild post-punk track and I figured quizzing the band about its meaning, and its weird video would be a valuable way to spend some time. I was not mistaken.
So, what's the song about?
Marcus: Death, destruction, sex, love, hate. It's based on a painting Mark bought from a charity shop in Streatham years ago with his flatmate Peter (who appears in the video as our dominatrix).
Mark: When I first moved to London, I moved into a disused old people's home as a property guardian. It was really unloved and still had all your typical care home furniture and horrendous art on the walls. Peter (the dominatrix in the video) moved in, and we were both drawn to this one painting. It was pretty awful. I think it's supposed to be a romantic scene in Venice on a gondola, but the colours are really dark, and the guy has a sinister look on his face as he peers over his wife's shoulder, who is looking away impassively. The painting is called 'Honeymooning In Venice', which is where the song title came from. Thus, the lyrics were an attempt to capture the feelings of a marriage where fallacies of a failing relationship are present. When we left the old care home, Peter and I took the painting with us and have taken turns to hang it in our respective homes. It's now the pride of my living room. It's shit, but I love it.
Interesting process. Do other mediums affect the way you create songs?
Mark: The creation of the songs get influenced by everything. Be it a nice turn of phrase that gets expanded upon, or just a silly idea to write a song about motorway service stations. We float in and out of the meaningful and the trivial quite casually.
Does that make the abstract nature of your writing hard to communicate potent emotions, or is that not a concern of Fabricators?
James: When I first started writing songs, they were all about potent emotions - love, desire etc. - and all of those early songs were atrocious. It's all been done before, but at least with surrealism, there are no boundaries.
Intriguing, though isn't it merited to view emotions through the subjective lens of interesting writers? Surely surrealism has had its time in the pop-rock cannon?
James: I suppose love and surrealism and every other topic anyone could write about has all be done to death. All you can do is put a new slant on it or do it better. Though of course there's always the danger that you're just another bunch of idiots contributing to the shit heap. We do hope that's not the case. There's your article title – 'Another bunch of idiots contributing to the shitheap'.
I'm sure we can come up with a better title for you. Tell us a little more about your video production.
Marcus: I've been wanting to create a video like this for a while now, so when 'HIV' came to fruition I knew it was an excellent opportunity to assume form as puppet master and unleash all the weird little ideas in my head onto film…it only took a few pints to convince James to shave his head, Mark to bark like a dog dressed in leather and for all of us to pile on top of each other in our birthday suits for the cake scene. We are closer as a band now. I can't take credit for the production though as Laura Manners (our director) made all of these ideas a well-lit and stylized reality.
Are there any visuals that reference the lyrics at all?
Marcus: The focus for visuals was mainly based on the lyrics "Cruel and unusual", which I think is echoed throughout.
Of course. How did James (was it even him?) breath under that goo dribbling down his face?
Marcus: It was actually a mate of Jed's (who did the cinematography), who volunteered to do this shot - it was an industrial-sized pot of treacle we poured over his head, but yeah, there was a moment when we all thought he was going to stop breathing – thankfully Mike made it out alive, although he has remained a very sweet and sticky man.
Ha! When are your next shows and will you be replicating parts of the video live?
Marcus: The 17th August we are with Fuzzy AF in the Engine Rooms in Bow. We are also planning our EP launch show, which will be in September. James, what do you reckon, fancy shaving your head again in front of a crowd? I think we'd feel robbed if you didn't, James. Go on, give in to your inner exhibitionist.
James: There's now only about one centimetre of hair to shave off my head. Would have far more impact if the drummer shaved theirs.
Now there's a challenge if ever I saw one. Thanks for the interview guys and may your upcoming gigs be great!
See Fabricators live:
SAT 17 AUG @ Engine Rooms - Bow