Dan Bejar, the frontman and guiding voice behind the band Destroyer, is the kind of artist who really beat to his own drum. Never has that been more evident than with the release of the video for the band’s new single “Tinseltown Swimming In Blood” from the upcoming album Ken. The clip is actually a direct homage to a classic French, science fiction film, released in 1962 titled La Jetée.
Director KC — aka Karen Zolo — shared how she came up with the idea to repurpose the post-nuclear, time travel film for Destroyer’s latest video.
“I’d just had a conversation about artist Chris Marker with a friend when I was approached to make a music video for the upcoming Destroyer album,” said Zolo. “‘You have a month.’ Okay…I had no idea what the song even sounded like, but the only idea I had was to remake Chris Marker’s La Jetée as faithfully as possible. It’s not just an homage to the great cine-poet; it’s also about the medium of film, about still photography. It would have been a billion times easier and less stressful to shoot it digitally, but it was worth it.
As for the song itself, there are some major Leonard Cohen vibes at play. The musical arrangement is very rhythmic, carried by punchy drums, and bouncing bass lines, along with sporadic horn and guitar solos. At the center of it all is Bejar, who sings in a flat, almost monotone fashion, intoning his imagery-packed lines with total steadiness.
You can watch Destroyer’s new ‘Tinseltown Swimming In Blood’ video above.
