HEALTH and Perturbator’s “BODY/PRISON” video is a slow drive into hell
Watch HEALTH’s new video and read an interview with Jake Duzsik of the band.
Some commutes are tougher than others but none are as challenging as the one depicted in HEALTH's new music video. "BODY/PRISON" is a collaboration with French artist Perturbator with both artists pushing one another to musical extremes. Synths that sound like dynamite explode on every drop while a marching percussive sound rings out throughout.
The hellish vibe is matched by the accompanying music video, premiering above via The FADER. In scenes which will be familiar to anyone who has played classic first-person driving games such as Night Driver, Pole Position, and Out Run, the 16-bit visuals show a steering wheel and a whole heap of darkness as the driver gets ever closer to their peril. You'll never look at a plume of smoke in the same way again.
It's all a stark contrast from HEALTH's recent team up with Soccer Mommy, on the pretty and expansive "MASS GRAVE", but the two tracks represent an increasingly collaborative period in the band's career. HEALTH confirmed that there are two further collaborations to come before a "heavy as shit" album drops in early 2019. Jake Duzsik from the band spoke to The FADER about this next stage and his band's wild new video. Read on to hear what he had to say.
What can you tell us about BODY/PRISON?
It's a new track we made with the artist Perturbator. "BODY/PRISON" is the title. The song is dark and heavy. That's pretty much all the relevant info.
How did you discover Perturbator's music and come to collaborate with him?
We were in Las Vegas playing a show and he was there the same night on tour with John Carpenter. We had made plans to meet up that evening as we mutually appreciated the music each other were making but the face to face never materialized. We ended up starting an online correspondence instead and the idea of collaborating on a song came up.
So far this year we've heard music from you with Soccer Mommy and Perturbator. How did this new collaborative phase come about and what are you looking for in the people you're recording with?
I think the idea for the collaborations came from the same aesthetic aims as the remix records that we have curated in the past. The goal is to find a way to work with an artist or band whose music inspires us and has strengths distinct from yet potentially symbiotic to our own. The hope is always that you will discover something worthwhile that you wouldn't otherwise have stumbled onto. Just like any creative pursuit, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. However,the act of creating a completely new piece of music rather than commissioning a remix of an existing one is even more interesting, as the process is very open and integrated between the collaborators. It's fairly easy to get locked into a creative cycle within your own band that is complete with any number of limitations. When you go make a song with someone who has their own district process you at the very least know that the result will be something you wouldn't have thought to do while working in your personal vacuum.
Has your work on movie soundtracks led to any changes with HEALTH's new music?
Anytime you have to meet musical aesthetics outside your comfort zone you are going to grow a little. This is essentially the beating heart of soundtrack work in any form. Because your contribution is merely a building block in relation to the final product, your mandate is simply to try and make whatever it is better, more effective, more emotional. This takes the pressure away from feeling you need to make a statement about your band the way you do when you release a song or an album. However, it also forces you to be flexible in whatever direction the material demands. Typically you create a lot of music, during which process there is a lot of trial and error. So in putting together such a diverse amount of work you come up with a lot of new sounds, production techniques and ideas. So yeah, i'd say scoring has had a considerable impact on HEALTH records themselves.
HEALTH will return to live duty touring with The Neighbourhood in Europe in January 2019.