Grizzly Bear - "gun-shy" Music Video - REDEFINE magazine - music art film journalism

Last year, the NSFW video for Kirin J. Callinan’s “Way To War (WIIW)” caught my attention with its punk rock Lars Von Trier visual choices. Just recently, the same director, Kris Moyes, released a music video for Grizzly Bear’s “gun-shy” — crystallizing what I would say is the best track from the band’s latest offering, Shields, into a sputtering-in-time work of natural and “scientific” strangeness.

Expect a compare-and-contrast interview with Moyes about both of these videos in the coming month — but for now, relish in the animated .gifs and the video’s delicious sleight of hand, tripped out subtle magic. Full clip inside, along with an initial statement from Moyes about the work.

About the “gun-shy” music video, from director Kris Moyes (via Grizzly Bear’s website)

“The idea came from a question:- if the creative energy of any living organism could be seen, what would it look like? Ed, Daniel, T and Bear demonstrate where their creative energy is located by extracting their hair, nails, skin, sweat, tears and blood. This is an invitation for a very rare glimpse of what creative energy could look like on a molecular level, if it could be seen.

Is this is where their music comes from?

The 2nd half of the video takes on a more metaphysical or alchemy-like shift. We see the impact they have on their environment, throbbing leaves, boiling a river, steam, hovering in air, lightning bug-like sparkles in the afternoon sun etc.

This turning point in the story came out of a very creative conversation I had with Daniel Rossen and belief I have and I think the band share is everything is connected.

In the filming of this clip we used various scientifically explainable methods known to the natural world, soap film interference, rapid crystallization, splitting of the light spectrum etc to create the impression that these visual phenomena actually comes from them.

Of course this hypothesis would not hold much weight in the various scientific circles, but, it is a good question to ask. Science has tried unsuccessfully to explain where creativity comes from. Why some humans have a creative drive and others do not, why this person can draw but does not have a musical ear, or why this person is better suited to the clarinet and not the guitar, and why some people can play every instrument they come into contact with.”