Tom about the video for Quatre Mains

Tom Barman talked exclusively to Drowned in Sound about the new video, Quatre Mains:

You have songs you want to put on when you drive. And then you have songs that make you want to go out and drive. Klaas, our violinplayer, said it had to rain in the video.

‘Diamonds on my windshield, tears from heaven’. He was right but we didn’t have a budget for a raining-machine and it never rains in Belgium so. I was going to use my Peugeot 504 for the shoot but I hit the side of my garage. So we got another one and i’m glad it’s in.

We made a Polish girl speak Russian. It’s complicated. I’m sure it will piss some native Russians off. Again the budget. The scenes in the hangar, the pushing of the trolly, were, unconsciously inspired by the paintings and videos of Michaël Borremans, who did the artwork of Vantage Point.

Airhockey is something I loved playing in seedy lunaparks at the Belgian coast. My favorite moments were always when the disc got airborne. My sister hated that.

We used the object on the cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s Discovery as an example for the air-hockey disc. The colours are also reminiscent of the electronic 80s game called Simon. A memory exercise.

The sheep were easy to work with. Easier then Sam Lowyck who was two hours late for the shoot. To get the sheep to look into the camera, our drummer Steph made sheep-noises. They responded well to that. I have no clue what they were talking about but Steph has earned eternal respect from the crew, the extras, the members of the band and the sheep.