Wild Beasts x Mattis Dovier: the making of a GIF novel.Let's just get straight in and explain the premise, OK? Jameson whiskey have set up a kind of artist's bursary and then contacted sweet artists to see if they wanted money to make, wait for it, sweet art!According to singer Hayden Thorpe, Wild Beasts were approached and given total free reign—no agenda, no limitations. Daunting stuff. After a thoughtful sit down with a cup of tea (we imagine) they concluded that "It’s more important that art gets made than not," which is something we agree with wholeheartedly.Ultimately, after seeing the video for Plurabelle's song "Our Fires," helmed by Parisian illustrator and animator Mattis Dovier, the band reached out. He's around the same age as Wild Beasts and had similar touchstones—Dragon Ball Z, Master Systems, Nintendo—as well as a shared interest in Manga, which was, in part, a source of inspiration behind Wild Beasts' most recent album, this year's Present Tense.Manga was actually an influence we missed when we interviewed them way back when, but Hayden explained that the connection was to do with Manga's "subverted eroticism," adding, "It’s the Japanese inversion of the West: a lot of the things they take on and twist are often far more interesting and darker than the Western palette will allow."The result is two stories, in the form a a GIF novel. The images were sketched out by Dovier while Wild Beasts provide the soundtrack in the form of two unreleased songs.There's "Blood Knowledge" about human's innate instincts and "Soft Future" which, according to the band "was an experiment on our part to make a human song on laptops. We took those two songs apart, boiled them down and built them back up as soundtracks and each scene is accompanied by a piece of music."Because Wild Beasts have made one of the best records of 2014 and because they actually consider and answer all the questions we pose, no matter how silly, we called up Hayden to talk about the partnership, the end result, and Tinder.Noisey: Apart from your admiration of his work and shared influences you also feel that Mattis is a kindred spirit in the arts right?
Hayden: Yes, he draws by hand, but then uses the digital age as a platform to bring his work to life and that’s how we do it in many ways. Often our initial ideas are put together on the most crude meat-and-potatoes of instruments, but then we try and use what’s around us rather than cover ourselves in a blanket and hope that no one notices it’s not the 1970s anymore.You've said: "It became apparent from our first conversations that Mattis and Wild Beasts both viewed, with the same interest, questions of human experience within a world where technology permeates every aspect of our live." Were you in fact talking about Tinder?
I’m deeply, deeply fascinated by Tinder. As fascinated as you can get before coming a member, which I’m not! For the record!It’s a strange dynamic in that the internet is man’s greatest achievement—it’s the sum total of thousands of years worth of technical advancements—but in many ways this huge scientific and technological breakthrough appeals to our most primitive and basic of instincts. It lessens the distance between us being a person and us being Godlike in that it allows you access to all the things you were unable to access so easily before—be they goods, products, sex. That’s why things like Tinder are so fascinating. They open up this whole world regarding what’s acceptable and what’s not. What do we really want?Are you in favor?
I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m quite happy that we’re in an age where we can watch it and respond to it. My initial concerns with it really began with Facebook. I'm not a member, but I was kind of concerned about how Facebook might really do damaging things to a person’s view of themselves. Like your relationship with your image of yourself. It’s a beautiful resource in terms of communication, but personally my mind cannot contend with my past and my history cataloged like that. It’s not how I’m able to make sense of myself and my past.
I also read David Eggers The Circle. It’s pretty on the mark. It foretold Apple’s releases for the next five years and they’re kind of happening as we speak. He poses questions about what it does to us and our spirit, our soul and this bled into our work with Mattis—our entire currency tends to be fact and there’s very little room for superstition and spirituality and higher powers. All our aspirations are towards being God like ourselves. We’re like mini-gods! ’m starting to sound like a New Age preacher! I better be careful.
Can you tell me more concretely about the narrative?
A robot wakes up in a natural world without technology and the story plots the robot’s questions and spiritual longing in this world he’s useless [with]in. The same questions are reversed where a human wakes up in an industrial landscape, a world of metal and concrete, and it becomes apparent how lost this person is. How does he feed himself, where does he go? The robot walks into a cave and discovers cave painting and puts his hand on the print mark made by the child 6000 years ago. I think the story is very moving.Thanks Hayden!Watch the making of video above, plus view the entire GIF novel—thanks to The Jameson Works, for the very first time, right here.Follow Kim on Twitter.
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Hayden: Yes, he draws by hand, but then uses the digital age as a platform to bring his work to life and that’s how we do it in many ways. Often our initial ideas are put together on the most crude meat-and-potatoes of instruments, but then we try and use what’s around us rather than cover ourselves in a blanket and hope that no one notices it’s not the 1970s anymore.You've said: "It became apparent from our first conversations that Mattis and Wild Beasts both viewed, with the same interest, questions of human experience within a world where technology permeates every aspect of our live." Were you in fact talking about Tinder?
I’m deeply, deeply fascinated by Tinder. As fascinated as you can get before coming a member, which I’m not! For the record!It’s a strange dynamic in that the internet is man’s greatest achievement—it’s the sum total of thousands of years worth of technical advancements—but in many ways this huge scientific and technological breakthrough appeals to our most primitive and basic of instincts. It lessens the distance between us being a person and us being Godlike in that it allows you access to all the things you were unable to access so easily before—be they goods, products, sex. That’s why things like Tinder are so fascinating. They open up this whole world regarding what’s acceptable and what’s not. What do we really want?
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I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m quite happy that we’re in an age where we can watch it and respond to it. My initial concerns with it really began with Facebook. I'm not a member, but I was kind of concerned about how Facebook might really do damaging things to a person’s view of themselves. Like your relationship with your image of yourself. It’s a beautiful resource in terms of communication, but personally my mind cannot contend with my past and my history cataloged like that. It’s not how I’m able to make sense of myself and my past.
A robot wakes up in a natural world without technology and the story plots the robot’s questions and spiritual longing in this world he’s useless [with]in. The same questions are reversed where a human wakes up in an industrial landscape, a world of metal and concrete, and it becomes apparent how lost this person is. How does he feed himself, where does he go? The robot walks into a cave and discovers cave painting and puts his hand on the print mark made by the child 6000 years ago. I think the story is very moving.Thanks Hayden!Watch the making of video above, plus view the entire GIF novel—thanks to The Jameson Works, for the very first time, right here.Follow Kim on Twitter.