Musical Musings with Delta Heavy

Dance music promos typically fit to a formula of beautiful people dancing on a beach, this certanly isn't true of UK drum and bass heavyweights Delta Heavy. The duo, aka Ben Hall and Simon James, now have a diverse portfolio of promos behind them ranging from animation to stop-motion and have taken time from recording their debut album to talk to shots about their promos and their views on the music video industry.

You recently tweeted that you will continue to showcase the talents of up-and-coming music video directors; why is this important to you?

Dance/electronic music videos have an overwhelming tendency to be wholly uninspired, predictable and shallow; recycling hackneyed formulas and clichés with alarming regularity. We look to swim against this tide in any way possible, and seeking out young directors, animators and designers with fresh ideas and personal enthusiasm has been key to this.

How do you find these new talents and what do you look for in a director/collaborator?

Industry contacts, word of mouth and quite simply searching the Internet. Prior to commissioning the video for Get By [above] we were recommended director Ian Robertson by a friend as we wanted a stop-motion video; subsequently Ian suggested his friend Chris Bristow for the Reborn video [below].

We look for fresh, innovative concepts and treatments, professionally presented; you have to feel that the director/collaborator is themselves very passionate about their art and what they can bring to the table.

How effective are promos in a time where channels like MTV no longer show music videos and music sales are down?

In our nascent career thus far we have found them to be very effective. In an era where music feels incredibly oversaturated, it is one way of giving an artist an edge or a different talking point. For us it also feels very much part of the creative story behind our music, giving the tracks a visual and narrative embodiment.

What is the creative process behind the videos and how important is creativity when marketing a new release?

Creativity is vitally important in marketing a new release, otherwise you are doing the same thing as everyone else. The creative process behind the videos obviously varies between the styles and nature of the animation and production. Get By was a stop-motion animation that involved, among other things, the capture of 13,000 still photographs. Reborn was a combination of several techniques that included stop-motion, computer animation and shooting a model landscape.

How involved are you in the creative process of creating a new promo?

We liked to be as involved as possible without getting in the way of the director’s vision. We will have a big say in working with the initial treatment to bring it in line with what we had in mind for the video, before stepping back and letting the guys do their work.

How important are videos for a genre that is still relatively niche?

Very important to us; maybe less so to the labels deciding the budgets!

Where do you see the future of music videos heading? 

Most probably a move away from the traditional big budget video; platforms such as Radar enable creativity in this world where budgets may not be large or even available at all.