Playlist: David Heofs

What’s the best music video you’ve seen recently and why?

After watching HYUKOH’s latest music video, Godspeed!, I went back to Antenna, their previous promo with Sunset Rollercoaster, also directed by rafhoo.

I love the way it builds an entire universe out of everyday objects and situations, and how every moment somehow finds its place within this huge editing puzzle. There’s so much going on, constantly jumping between different materials, places and ideas, mixing a huge amount of footage with simple but incredibly effective visual tricks. It works perfectly with the song and keeps surprising you until the end.

What’s the first music video you remember being impressed by?

Probably Korn – Freak on a Leash. I saw it on TV when I was still a kid, just when I was starting to get into music. The song, the animation sequence, the bullet going through the poster into live action... I loved all of it.

I still think the performance set is amazing. The band in the dark, with light coming through all those bullet holes. Simple and perfect.

As a teenager, I discovered Mafia K’1 Fry - Pour ceux online. I grew up in Campamento, in the south of Madrid, and even though this was Paris, the apartment blocks, the people out in the streets and the whole aesthetic felt much closer to me than most of the American rap videos I’d seen until then. We used to put it on whenever we were hanging out at someone’s place and it would get us completely hyped.

And what’s your all-time favourite music video?

R.E.M. - Imitation of Life is a masterpiece. I love everything about it: the casting, the location, the art direction and that big wide shot where everything happens. 

All these little actions are happening at the same time while the video moves backwards and forwards through the same scene, finding all the different moments of playback. It’s brilliant. It still makes me smile every time I watch it.

What other directors/artists do you look to for inspiration?

Takeshi Kitano, Quentin Dupieux, Ulrich Seidl, Luis Buñuel, Emir Kusturica, Alice Rohrwacher and Leos Carax are some of my favourites. I’m especially interested in directors who look at the world in a very particular way, where humour, fantasy and drama can all exist at the same time.

Outside of film, I really like the work of Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing, Roman Signer, Hito Steyerl, Tina Barney and Maurizio Cattelan.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I spend all day listening to music. This week I’ve mostly been listening to albums by ESG, Peter Cat Recording Co., Beth Gibbons, Fimiguerrero, Shabazz Palaces, TOWA TEI, Junior Mesa, The Strokes, Samba Jean-Baptiste, Steve Lacy and Connan Mockasin.

What’s your favourite bit of tech, whether for professional or personal use?

Probably my scanner. I draw and make a lot of things by hand, so there’s always something going through it.

What artist(s) would you most like to work with and why? 

It would be a dream to work with Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’ve always had huge respect for them and I love what they’ve done throughout every era of the band, both musically and visually. Can’t Stop is one of the music videos that has influenced me the most. Being part of their videography would be a real honour.

Ed Banger would be another dream. I’ve always admired the whole world around the label: the music, the graphic design, the videos and the way they’ve built such a strong visual identity around everything they do.