A cube glows in the middle of the desert. Mysterious, funky sounds emanate around in all directions. Multicolored lights illuminate the hardy flora. Tiny aircraft hover above the whole mesmerizing scene. It sounds like a mysterious intro sequence from The X-Files, but the futurescape described above is actually the set of Sun Drug's latest music video for "Soaked," off their June 26th-released Sun Drug EP (Sun Drug Records).
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The identified flying objects are camera drones piloted by Corey Gineris, who previously used his skills to capture the sweeping landscapes of a dejected LA, where Sun Drug is based, in True Detective Season 2. His style was ideal for capturing the footage of California desert, which co-directors Brian Randall and Taylor Brown link to the soul of their city. "The song is very much tied into the fact that we live in LA, a city ceaselessly destined for inevitable destruction, yet a city we continuously build foundations upon under the false hope that anything actually lasts," a representative tells The Creators Project. "The video reflects this feeling of trying to build something with hope while constantly being under the threat of uncontrollable danger and being at the mercy of the elements."
Beneath the drone, other bleeding edge technology populates the futuristic landscape. Lead singer Steven Wilkin's Kinect-captured face is spread across the cubic screen like a grungey Wizard of Oz. In between verses, an abstract lightshow consumes the four-walled structure. A mini-lightshow blooms beneath every instrumentalist in the band, injecting them with James Turrell-like visual isolation. The video for "Soaked" is a cumulative testament to man relying on machine, and vice-versa, tinted with Sun Drug's unique brand of danceable, buzzy rock.Sun Drug debuted their first video from the EP, "Wildman," on The Creators Project in June, a projection-mapped tour-de-force that they revealed was actually influenced by work they'd seen on The Creators Project. With "Soaked," they further advance the experimentation with technology and the future of creativity that has driven this website for years. Get a glance of the behind-the-scenes tech that fuels the video in these exclusive making-of photos and GIFs below.
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