"In Love with a Robot" music video making of!

By now, most of you have probably seen our music video for our track "In Love With a Robot". (if not here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUJX7ptmw_Uwww.youtube.com/watch?v=fUJX7ptmw_U ). The shooting of the video was full of  funny stories, from the conception to shopping props, to the finished product. So I thought today I'd tell you a little about it. A director's commentary so to speak. The video was directed by myself (Fabien), beautifully shot by my brother Sebastien, beautifully dressed by my girlfriend Lyndsay (who also designs all the artwork for the band, from the flyers and stickers to the album cover), and beautifully acted by Adam's ex-girlfriend and the band Cosmic Suckerpunch .


A year and a half ago, we played for the first time this song live, and after the show, one of the close friends of the band came to see us, and said: "That new song... I like it. It talks about a girl and her vibrator, right?". Which Ari didn't originally meant when he first wrote the lyrics of the song. But we thought what a cool concept that would be for a music video! So a year and half later, we shot it. Judged "Not suited for school or work" by the press, this video has generated a lot of controversies.

For me, the music video tells the story of this young puritan girl from the 50's that gets her first vibrator. She discovers herself, discovers her body. It's a story about a sexual liberation and revolution... and rock'n'roll.


So here we go...

We're here on one of our main sets. For the time of the shoot, Ari's living room has been transformed into a young girl's bedroom. And he has been sleeping there too for a few days, because that's his bed we're using here. Some guys wonder what it is to be a little girl, Ari has now the answer.

When we first started to design her bedroom, we had to make it girly. Ari being a single dude, there was not much to be used as what he had. So we had to shop a lot for the set dressing. We did thrift stores/craigslist/personal items, you name it. I think the only thing that is Ari's here, is the bed ( not the cover) and that blue cage holding a bird. Ari being a swell guy and all, he rescued "Birdie" from his court yard, and magically fitted the color pattern we were using. I thought it'd be a cool metaphor for our young girl's situation. She is trapped in a cage being her bedroom, but soon will be freed... by Cosmic Suckerpunch. The vanity table is circa 1950. The knitted blankets probably are too as they were knitted by Lyndsay's grandmother a long time ago. I didn't want to have plain walls, so knowing Lyndsay has some serious arts and craft skills, I asked her to paint something to put up. She came up with those 50's design inspired paintings, as well as that golden star you see in the wider shot. I am still looking for a spot to put it up in our home.


The little green robot made out of foam under the table lamp, is actually a pretty funny story. In the early days, we used to be called Ghost Robot, and one of Lyndsay's art assignment at school was to make something out of foam. She did the robot. I thought it would be cool to have a reference to the past of Cosmic Suckerpunch . 



The cat stuffed animal at the girl's feet, comes from a Goodwill store in Los Angeles. That item had become a legend in the store has it has been there forever, since no one wanted to buy it. Lyndsay was told that as joke, the employees would switch his place every week in the store. When she got it, the store was filled with celebration and sadness at the same time, like a kid leaving his hometown for the city.

We couldn't find a 1950's TV at a reasonable price, so we went for this circa 1967 Zenith model. A geeky dude sold it to me in the street.

National Geographic revamped.

We couldn't find a rotary phone anywhere, since no one uses them anymore. So we had Ari's parents express-ship us theirs, and we painted it in pink!

 The band set - a tribute to the late night shows of the 50's, especially inspired from the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. The stars were all hand made. This location is quite interesting as it is the warehouse where Josh resides. For a while Cosmic Suckerpunch used to rehearse there. This place has quite a bit of rock'n'roll history has it used be were the band Suicidal Tendencies used to live and rehearse back in the days.

 The vibrator. It's one of the first props we got. At the end of a rehearsal at Josh's warehouse, I told him about the vibrator, and he told me "dude, there this sex shop down the street, they have everything you'd want!". Trusting his knowledge in this area, we all hopped in the car and went there. I checked in on yelp and had a 30% discount.




In the end, I think we're all very proud of this video, as it is such a fun video to watch. And I don't mind the controversy. Every press is good, right?


-  Fabien.