Mauno is a Halifax four-piece pop group with the Baroque tendencies of Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles fashioned into engaging, unpredictable sonic salves. The music video for the band's new single "Helah," premiering today on The FADER, is an impressionistic take on the typical tour video, directed by Tom Chick. The local flavor of the Welsh town of Harlech is blurred together in a series of superimposed shots: it could be any countryside town in the moors. When it focuses on a few key scenes with the band, the video becomes a reflection of how road trips become memory: an overarching feeling with a few fragments of special moments that stand out.
Over email, Mauno's Nick Everett gave us a comprehensive behind-the-scenes view of the video.
This video was made by London-based filmmaker Tom Chick, in a bizarre little town in Wales called Harlech. The lot of us rented a place for a couple of days and just wandered around the area, trying to capture all of the strangeness and idiosyncrasies of the place. Tom had chosen the town because of the peculiar sadness and general obscurity that emanated from it. It was surreal to be in such quaint and pretty place by the sea that was simultaneously so grim. These feelings really evoked the vibe of “Helah”—as if our song was the town's anthem and the city planner had only consulted Calvino's Invisible Cities. The whole town seemed wrapped up in a forlorn nostalgia. The dilapidated castle overlooking it commanded a hypnotic fascination so intense that it made the place forget where it was, reminiscent of that far-off stare you can easily get locked into, completely oblivious of your cuff having caught fire on the stove. Harlech was a short drive from one of the biggest open mines we’d ever seen. We took it all in for a day, Tom documented our explorations, and then we closed our time together by building what turned into a ceremonial fire in the dunes next to the ocean.
Mauno's new album Tuning is out October 13 via Tin Angel/Idee Fixe. Preorder it here. The band will tour Europe this fall with Canadian indie giant Chad VanGaalen, and you can see those dates below.
Mauno tour dates
9/23 Hamburg (DE) - Reeperbahn Festival
9/24 Berlin (DE) - Monarch
9/26 Amsterdam (NL) - Sugar Factory
9/27 Brussels (BE) - Atelier 210
9/30 Paris (FR) - Espace B
10/04 London (UK) - The Islington (tickets)
10/05 Coventry (UK) - Inspire
10/15 Utrecht (NL) - EKKO *
10/16 Rotterdam (NL) - Rotown *
10/18 Leeds (UK) - Brudenell Social Club *
10/21 Copenhagen (DK) - Stengade *
10/24 Düdingen (CH) - Bad Bonn *
10/25 Lyon (FR) - Le Sonic *
10/26 Amiens (FR) - La Lune des Pirates *
10/29 Tourcoing (FR) - Le Grand Mix *
10/30 Luxembourg (LU) - Rotondes *
10/31 Gent (BE) - BIB *
* w/ Chad VanGaalen