New clip, interview - Aleks and the Ramps

When Aleks Bryant isn't fronting Melbourne's Aleks and the Ramps, he works as an animator. We chatted to him about the clip he's just made for the Ramps, the price of the process and who came up with cats with lasers for eyes first.


Aleks and the Ramps - 'Antique Limb'

Ok. So what's going on here?

Umm....well it was pretty much an excuse for me to screw around with [Adobe's animation program] After Effects a lot. It's what I do for a living, making graphics and shit for commercials and boring shit and...I figured I should make a music video.

You've made them before haven't you? Or were they just online ads?

Made music videos? Not really. I did one for Wagons ages ago, but I don't think it counts because it SUCKED! And I did one for the ramps a while ago, we made it in a karaoke bar.



Aleks and the Ramps - 'Pisces vs Aquarius''

I must be thinking of the little online gig ads you've done. And don't think I won't search that Wagons one now. I've seen the karaoke one. Is it true you tried to pick a song on the night with the same tempo?

Oh yeah, I've made heaps of those little online ad things. It's funny, because having a fancy little ad never ever actually seems to make any more people come to your shows. The Wagons one isn't online, it has pretty much been buried. Yes we found that 'Sultans of Swing' by Dire Straits had almost the exact same tempo as our song. So we made up a dance for our song, then learned it to 'Sultans of Swing'. I think I want to make another music video like that, you know, just recycle the exact same idea but make it even more huge and ridiculous.

After Effects seems so confusing to me. How you figure out all the planes and the POV's and how it all hangs together. Do you just start and see what happens, where it goes?

Yeah kinda. This one started as a moving storyboard. I was pretty much screwing around with ideas, using a little human shape as a placeholder for real humans. Getting pictures from Google image search and spent hours and days just screwing around with it all. Then we shot it with real humans and replaced the fake humans. After Effects is a pretty powerful and confusing beast to deal with. Arranging things in 3D and making a fake camera move around it. And the complexity of this music video is like Thunderbirds compared to some of the other ones out there.

Is there a danger of there being an After Effects "look?" Not that other video tropes don't keep on keeping on, but I've seen similar looks and you can tell it's after effects.

Yeah I've heard people refer to the After Effects "look" and it definitely will look dated and shit sometime soon. This one will be so naff in 2012! And yeah, I can see certain AE giveaway things in videos. But sometimes it's a blend of stuff from a fancy 3D program and imported into AE and then graded with some other thing and blah blah blah. Whenever I'm sitting on a Virgin flight with that obnoxious little screen in front of me, I spend the whole flight looking at the graphics and thinking "Mmmm how did they do that one....?" I know you can turn those things off, but I always just end up looking at the one next to mine.

I know what you mean. So do you feel this was a success? It must be weird to write songs, sing them, and then put your own head in the video that you're making to represent your band?

Yep. It's a BAD idea. Don't do it! ever! It's not healthy for your brain to spend hours and hours in front of a computer making something with your face and voice all over it. I was actually going to get an actor to play "me" but Janita [Foley, bandmate] thought I should be in it. And I do what I'm told. I did it at film school once - put myself in my own film - and so I thought I'd learned my lesson. Guess i didn't. I don't know if it's a "success", it's probably not as good as I wanted it to be. But I had to stop working on it, because it was driving me fucking insane. And I don't really think there's a really strong "idea" or "concept" behind it y'know? It's pretty dumb. Maybe that's a good thing though, sometimes music videos are just too clever for their own good.

I think it suits the song well. The mixture of beautiful images and then just wacky, almost dizzying stuff. I like the bit where Janita's flying. Disappointed you don't actually 'flip the bird' in it though...

Ha! Yeah I think I did few takes where I did a little "flip the bird" dance move but it looked pretty naff. Dizzying. Yep, that's the kaleidoscope filter in after effects, that thing fucken rules! I'm probably being harsh on it because I've seen it sooooo many times.

There's a few parts that remind me of the Spod video for 'Dead' as well. Who do you think did the "cats with lasers" first? I remember seeing it ages ago on your flyers. But then Spod, Tim & Eric....are cats with lasers for eyes the new wolf?

Oh yeah the Spod one. I saw that and thought "Dammnit!! That's the type of music video I want to make" - like someone in beat me to it or whatever. We've been obsessed with cats for as long as I can remember, and the various things that they project from their mouths/eyes/etc. It's probably some sort of collective unconscious things. Or maybe Spod stole it from us. That fuckwit. I'm gonna bash his stupid face in at the Tucker Bs thing this weekend! Oh yeah and Richard in Your Mind.

Nice plug. And yeah you're right about RIYM. Though I guess that goes right back to the Goodies doesn't it...

Kitten Kong! I totally forgot about that.

So with this one done, would you consider making clips for other bands? Have (bandmates) Potential Falcon and Denim Owl hassled you now?

Yep I really want to make clips for other bands. Me and Lily (who did the artwork for our album) were going to make one for Oliver Mann's 'Dancing', but it kinda fell through when we talked about money. Because he couldn't really put any cash up, and we're broke. We were going to do a barter thing in return for singing lessons. Maybe I should rekindle that when he comes back from Europe. I really want to make a clip for that song, it fucking rules so hard. But yeah I really want to make more, it's just a matter of finding the time and I've never really actively chased anyone about doing clips. Plus there's really no money in it. It's hard for a band to justify paying someone a couple of grand for something that in all likelihood won't "move any units". I might make one for the P-Falc or the D-Owl....who knows?

How much would a vid like this cost if you weren't doing it yourself?

Man...I have no idea how much it would normally cost for that clip. A production company would charge....mmmm....fucken heaps. For a 3:30min full animated clip. I know a place I worked for charged 10 grand for this clip for XXXXX. (Name removed by request).

Wow. But then actually, 10 grand isn't much for a "label" video. Most start their vids at around 30 grand.

Yeah I think it was a favour doing it that cheap. But to me, that seems like SO much money for footage of a dude singing, intercut with a girl walking around town. I think they did it "cheap" because they really wanted to get in with XXXXX (and land the next XXXXX XXXX video or something). But if I made a video like 'Antique Limb' for someone else's band, and if they weren't on a big label..... it'd be pretty tough to come up with a figure.

'Antique Limb' - and the album Midnight Believer - seem to be going pretty well. The LP has been album of the week in a few places, on community radio and 'Antique Limb is getting JJJ airplay.
 
Yep the album is doing OK, and JJJ added it to rotation which is nice. I kinda had a bad feeling that releasing 'Antique Limb' before the album was going to be misleading though. Y'know the rest of the album is.....not quite as pop maybe? But people seem to like some of the other tracks. We'll wait and see.