Jan Verstraeten is going places. A couple of months after the release of his acclaimed debut album ‘Violent Disco’, our favourite singer, painter and all round phenomenon is embarking on a French adventure, makes his TV debut, and he has a stunning new music video in store for us.
The video for ‘Cry Baby’ is distilled from director Benny Vandendriessche’s impressive debut film ‘Drift’. Jan reinterprets desolate scenes from the movie that seamlessly coincide with the melancholic track from his own debut album. The two artists share their perspective on this collab below.
Jan and his band also recorded two renowned TV sessions in the last couple of weeks. Their Basique session aired on France 4 last week, their Toots session will be broadcasted on Canvas tonight.
Next milestone for Jan Verstraeten will be a his show at Trans Musicales, France’s leading showcase festival in Rennes, December 9.
Watch the Cry Baby video
Listen to Violent Disco
Watch the Basique session
Watch the Toots session
FROM BENNY VANDENDRIESSCHE :
« I admire Jan’s approach on his music and his DIY videos. But when he came up with the idea of using images from DRIFT for a new music video, I was not sure this could work. DRIFT is my first feature, and - as with all first babies - it’s very dear to me. The film is radical, poetic and visceral. It depicts a silent man, losing touch with reality, who wanders through a strange landscape, followed by a pack of stray dogs. How would we manage to create new meaning for these images, instead of ending up with a video that felt like a “trailer” to my film? Easy: Jan’s music did the trick. Ten years after the release of DRIFT, some of its images have found a new home. »
FROM JAN VERSTRAETEN :
« CRY BABY is a heartbreak song about wandering through a gloomy vampire city looking for the lover you lost. You desperately try to heal the hurt: you try to return to the familiar blanket of the dark love, but you find yourself empty handed. You put your head in the sand to ignore those devouring feelings inside, but to no avail.
When I was making my debut album ’Violent Disco’ I saw the film ‘Drift’. I immediately felt a strong connection: A lost hermit in barren landscapes surrounded by street dogs. The movie captured the feeling I had when I was making these songs. I forgot about it, until I accidentally met Benny a year later. We talked about the movie. When I was driving home I was thinking about my song CRY BABY. And how the lyrics perfectly match the movie. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place and we edited the video together. It was meant to be, thank you universe. »