Vile Imbeciles and the art of performing to the void

I caught up with Tom Holborn and the band about the making of “Tasselled Death Wish”, a video that leans into the strange, lonely theatre of playing to no one. Rather than gloss over the awkwardness of the half-empty room, they decided to build a story around it. Drawing from horror films and their own memories of ghost-gig nights, the result is a quietly unsettling portrait of performance, perception and the illusion of success.

Tom, you directed the video for 'Tasselled Death Wish'. What was your brief, and did it challenge your perception of the song?

Caspian: If I may, I'll give a little bit of a prefix to Tom's comment on the brief. The two of us have been friends for some time, but have never worked together, and I had never seen his work until last year. 

How'd you meet?

Caspian: We met through my brother, and at some point, on a phone, over a bar, held over a pint of Guinness, Tom showed me a Hip hop video he was finalising. The attention to detail in the edit and the colour grading enhanced the song. Truly, it was incredible. The two of us met to talk through a fairly loose brief that was the result of some discussion as a band. Being a fairly off-kilter and unusual sounding collection of sound, we've had a lot of mixed experiences when it comes to live performance. You're sometimes playing to a room full of people who seem to understand what we are trying to convey, intent on working it out. 

Sure. It's not like you're an Oasis cover band. You're asking the audience to really invest.

Caspian: Other times you're in empty rooms - the pinnacle of this being us playing to only the sound man or support bands and in the case of one anecdote, the sound guy opting to leave the room for one of our bands. Speaking with Tom, we tried to explore the challenges of being musicians outside of the mainstream and the - at times - difficult nature of playing for no one and in parallel managing a very different perception of your band.

An all too familiar tale. What was the outcome of the conversation with Tom?

Caspian: We drew on a few influences, referencing the eerie juxtaposition of the full and empty bar in the overlook hotel from Kubrick's The Shining. We were also influenced by the illusion and uncomfortable nature of certain cuts and editing in horror that create uncertainty in what the real scene is. The concept of the video revolves around performance vs perception and the experience as a performer vs attendance. In my opinion, Tom did a great job in capturing a polished looking performance alongside an uncomfortably empty show. I'll shut up now and let Tom answer the question you asked him.

Tom Holborn: Me and Caspian met up for a drink down at Rossi bar - by which point we knew which tune we would be making the video for and that we had access to Alphabet’s main gig room for two separate shoot days (about four hours a piece.) 

Four hours a piece? You had your work cut out for you, hopefully at a discount hire fee?

Tom: As it is with self-funded projects it's often a case of what can we get for free and getting a space like Alphabet to shoot in was a touch. 

Low-budget shoots can be restrictive but very rewarding if everyone is on the same page. How would you describe the concept?

Tom: There was initially an idea of just doing the video as a performance clip, however, I'm always eager to include some sort of narrative and story beat. Even if it's relatively minor, I think a story helps to keep the viewer's attention and intrigue. Me and Cas were two or three pints in by this point so who came up with what exactly, I can't entirely remember, but the premise was to visually demonstrate the band members personal experiences of idealistic imaginings of playing a kick ass gig in front of a sold out crowd against what is often the reality for grass roots band, playing in front of a whole load of nobody. Andy had the idea of drawing upon Kubrick's 'The Shining' - particularly the scene where Nicholson enters a packed and lively ballroom which we as audience members realise is merely a figment of his imagination. 

Andy Huxley: Yeah that’s the concept, I have literally played to no one before, not even the sound guy. It made every note I played a choice, I could just either stop playing or carry on at any moment, not sure how to explain it but it was like my most existential performance ever.

Did other influences creep in? The editing post FX owe a bit to grind house.

Tom: I was also visually inspired by a UK horror film I'd recently seen named 'Censor'. Its climactic sequence depicted the protagonist's perception of what she wanted to be reality as colourful and vibrant but her actual reality was muted and grainy. This flashed at us through harsh jump cuts which I thought could be incorporated into our video… to illustrate the differences between hopeful imaginings and the harsh reality of what is.

“There’s always the inevitable weird question in your mind when you play a gig where no one is really there. Or no one is obviously there to watch you. Do you bother to perform, throw yourself around?” - Evan Reinhold

Were there any unseen obstacles you had to tackle?

Tom: I'd say the biggest and only real limitation of the shoot was having only a baker's dozen worth of extras built entirely of mates who heroically came to our aid due to nothing other than support and friendship. Therefore, we had to really cheese it and shoot everything in a way that didn't give away the fact that there were only a handful of audience members. 

How did you manage that?

Tom: We crowded everyone into one spot and shot through a long focal length to make the venue seem more packed out than it was. If I could've had anything more for this video it would have been more extras but all of my love and appreciation goes out to all the friends and supporters that came out to help us that day. All in all this was an absolutely joyful and painless two day shoot spent with great people and four absolute wizards of music. I can't wait for the next one!

Deen: He let us get on with performing as if we would've been playing to an audience.

Caspian: Working with Tom was brilliant and whilst we wanted to make sure the focus remained on the performance of the song, outside of this (us being the musicians and him being the film maker), we allowed him as much freedom as possible to create narrative and capture us and the aesthetics of the venue in a way that represented the song well.

What’s your perspective on playing to no one Evan?

Evan: There’s always the inevitable weird question in your mind when you play a gig where no one is really there. Or no one is obviously there to watch you. Do you bother to perform, throw yourself around? Then you find yourself overthinking it and then maybe even half arsed performing before it all comes to a head and you start thrashing around again. At full shows it’s always so easy to just authentically do all those movements and feed from a crowd and get a buzz from it. I guess we were trying to tap into those ideas. And Tom facilitated that brilliantly. I think we might be quite an intimidating and awkward bunch to direct so I thought Tom really figured out how to tell that story.

There’s an intriguing blink and you miss it quote at the bottom of the title screen. Who came up with that bit of nihilism and was it in mind before or after the clip was shot?

Caspian: Yes, this came without much thought, but felt in keeping with the juxtaposition of wording in the song title and the disparate simplicity and complexity in the song's sound. Plus, I suppose ending with "seen by no one" was meant to be playing into the theme of the must-see show in the empty room. Probably thought more about it just now than in coming up with it, though.

Andy: I think as musicians we have to be against the popularity contest that is likes and Spotify plays and whatever.

A lot of energy has gone into the performance. What’s it like being directed by Tom, Deen? Did he just let you get on with playing or were there specific directions shouted at you as you did your thing?

Deen: Yes, we're all energetic performers. Tom's direction was clear and calm. He let us get on with performing as if we would've been playing to an audience. Besides holding a certain position at the end, facing a particular direction I don't remember Tom needing to give too much input about our movements.

There has always been pressure on bands to present themselves as successful despite the reality of many a grassroots gig. Was the choice to not airbrush your occasional lack of support a difficult decision to take?

Caspian: I feel my natural inclination is to lean into being self-deprecating as a person and this often creeps into the things that I do. As such I don't see the need to present success and probably would be more naturally comfortable presenting my failures. I suppose this video plays on that theme. We played the same venue that the video was shot in to a full room only a couple of months prior to shooting, but for whatever reason the idea of presenting as a band playing their hardest to an empty room was more appealing to me. One to throw the therapist’s way probably, but the irony is that even for the sections of the video where we wanted to present the image of a crowd being there we only had 8-10 people and so had to move them around the room to pretend it was full. That was my favourite part.

Andy: An empty gig can be good for the soul. Painful but keeps your ego in check and part of the journey. Anyway the victory of a band is about the music and the relationships. External popularity is a side thing and can even hinder that. I think as musicians we have to be against the popularity contest that is likes and Spotify plays and whatever.

Musicians seek to fill an unfillable hole with all sorts, that included, right?  

Andy: I’ve had that and it brought no happiness. No amount of popularity will ever be enough. Yeah so, let’s celebrate all the bands who are unpopular and nowhere but still doing it.

Tom: When it comes to drawing from films like The Shining or Censor, it’s less about deliberately tapping into familiar semiotics and more about reacting to things that moved me as a viewer.’ - Tom Holborn, Music Video Director

Tom, you mentioned The Shining and Censor as influences on the video. Do you usually apply aesthetics of feature films to your videos and if so do you think a viewer's previous relationship to familiar semiotics and images can help broaden a band's audience through that appeal?

Tom: That's a good question. I’d say that I don't think too much about broadening the band's audience through any means to be honest. I believe the video is there purely to compliment the art already put forward by the band or artist themselves. I just tend to collaborate and come up with ideas with the band/artist, do my thing and hopefully they won't hate the product. When it comes to drawing from films like The Shining or Censor, it’s less about deliberately tapping into familiar semiotics and more about reacting to things that moved me as a viewer. If I reacted to something in some kind of way then whatever that filmmaker did succeeded in their pursuit of eliciting a reaction - whether that be amazement, wonder, horror or even 'that was kind of cool'. 

You have a simple approach to the brief each time, then?

Tom: If I can implement a not-too-shoddy rendition of a given technique or thematic, then hopefully it will elicit a reaction from our audience as well. I suppose this falls into the common, albeit controversial, perspective that 'there is no such thing as an original idea', which as an artist I try not to ponder too much and just crack on.  I apologise for a somewhat rambling answer. Put simply my aim is to end up with something visually sound and enjoyable to watch which ultimately the artists are happy with. If you do that well enough, enough times you'll gain an audience. One hopes anyway.

Vile Imbeciles play live in Brighton at the Green Door Store on the 12th June with OZ and Human Leather as main support.

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