Playlist: Zhang + Knight

What’s the best music video you’ve seen recently and why?

Zhang: Alaskan Tapes The Last Dinosaur [directed] by Norm Li. It’s one shot, there’s nobody in it, and absolutely nothing happens. And yet I watched it five times in a row and cried. 

Knight: Moses Sumney Quarrel by Allie Avital, in which Moses makes sadistic art installations out of horses until they take revenge and hang him. Also, he has horse arms. It’s so poignant and upsetting, and totally shocking that Avital was ever allowed to make something so majestically mental. 

What’s the first music video you remember being impressed by?

Zhang: Britney Spears Toxic by Joseph Kahn. I could’ve lied… but I was 12 and that nude rhinestone bodysuit will always be ICONIC. 

Knight: Unkle Rabbit in Your Headlights by Jonathan Glazer, because it’s poetic and harrowing and I’m not trash like Linden (Zhang).

And what’s your all-time favourite music video?

Zhang: Bjork All is Full of Love by Chris Cunningham; he made something which is in equal parts exquisitely beautiful and sexually arousing. It’s what we’re all trying to do. 

Knight: Dessert Back Around/Devil by Alex Lill; an unsung masterpiece. It makes you cry, then throw up a little bit, then cry again. If that’s not art, then I don’t know what is. 

What other directors/artists do you look to for inspiration?

Zhang: It’s a very different art form, but I find drag artists to be totally inspiring. It’s an extremely skilled, often vilified and poorly-paid discipline. It is courageous to spend your life honing an artistry that nobody else will necessarily celebrate or understand.

Knight: I am obsessed with Alejandro Jodorowsky. Linden (Zhang) and I are both meticulous planners, which comes largely from working in a duo and needing to agree on everything. Jodorowsky couldn’t be more different - he’s a spontaneous genius with all this mad unbridled energy. His process is so instinctive and reactive in a way which scares and excites me.

Image credit: Marc Zapanta

What are you listening to at the moment?

Zhang: Well, according to my iTunes I’ve listened to ‘Call Me Mother’ by RuPaul 87 times in the last 30 days.

Knight: A lot of Wolf Alice, some Young Fathers and a smattering of Solomon Grey.

What’s your favourite bit of tech, whether for professional or personal use?

Zhang: My parents recently bought a ‘magic Japanese toilet’. It plays music and lights up. It brings immeasurable joy to all who dare to use it.

Knight: I purchased a NutriBullet and haven’t looked back since. There really is nothing that you cannot blend.

What artist(s) would you most like to work with and why?

Zhang+Knight: We’re torn - it would be splendid to create something tender and delicate for a really emotive artist like Sigur Rós or Sampha… but then we’re also like ‘what if we could bring what we do to someone unexpected - what does Zhang + Knight + Nicki Minaj look like?!’

How do you feel the music video industry has changed since you started in it?

Z+K: We only started two years ago… but it does feel like there is less pressure from artists and labels to deliver a ‘product’, and more focus on creating something artistically good.

Music videos have had a resurgence of late; where do you see the industry being in five years’ time?

Z+K: Five years is a long time…! But the definition of a music video is growing ever more fluid. Visual albums, short film music videos, VR experiences, interactive pieces… What a time to be alive!

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

Z: I wanted to be an oil painter. All of my clothes smelled of white spirit and turpentine for four years. The little finger on my right hand still has minor chemical burns.

K: I am a classically trained opera singer.