Interview: Silver Strain

Silver Strain: the video and music editor from Germany whose name and gender we're still unsure of. Judging from the 'about' section on the official Facebook page -- simply Art is a woman with 100 heads -- we'd say this enigma likes it that way. For the purposes of this interview, let's say Silver Strain is a scary German man with a penchant for human sacrifice (seriously, watch his videos). He also likes Vietnamese food. But, really, who doesn't like Vietnamese food. It's fucking awesome. The head honcho at Black Bvs Records was kind enough to answer a few questions for us about what he's been up to.

Firstly, I love your style. It's like you've taken images straight out of my own brain.

In that case I like your brain. Thanks for the kind words.

Just speaking the truth. So, Silver Strain, how long have you been making videos for? 

I edited scenes from movies for a video with two VCRs as a kid... does that count?

2010, when I started my current project... more or less.

So the footage you use for your videos is from the films of the directors that you list them as tributes to, isn't it? Such as your clip for Carpenter Brut's 'Le Perv' is from Lucio Fulci's 'Murder-rock: Dancing Death' (on a side note, let's just take moment to appreciate the synopsis of this particular Giallo gem, in which the owner of a prestigious New York ballet school teams up with a male model to solve a series of bizarre murders of a few of the students)?

All the live footage is found footage. I try not to use super obvious stuff and keep it mostly a bit obscure. Something like the animation stuff in the Twin Peaks (that was NOT obscure) and Dune vids (if you've seen them) are self made... so it's a few weeks of preparation and animation... and then just a few short days of editing. I always try to play around with footage... meld some motion graphics with the images, color correct to fit the style and finally filter things to make them feel more homogenic if I use different sources... 

When I first saw your stuff, it was so obscure that I thought you'd shot it all yourself. Especially 'Le Perv', because it looks like better visual quality than a lot of 80s films.

I'd love to shoot stuff obviously (I've mostly been shooting behind the scenes stuff for films in Germany, so not really fulfilling)... but especially if I put out an artist on my DIY label and need to make a video for them, I don't necessarily have the resources to shoot something for them like a mainstream label would... and definitely not something in Japan like the 'Obituary' (also Carpenter Brut) footage...

I've just started some student filmmaking here in Australia, so I'm really interested in the nitty gritty details of the process (especially editing - some say 'tedious', I say 'therapeutic!). 

'Le Perv' is all from one film. Not a very good one but with pretty great cinematography. The advantage of editing a music video from one single movie is that you don't have jarring discrepancies between the material (and you can make something pretty decent out of a mediocre movie, maybe). In 'Obituary', there are like 8 or 9 movies. Some shot on film in the 70s, 80s, some shot on video just a few years back. So I filter the shit out of the footage and mess with the colors (which I do all the time anyway - I actually spend more time messing around in after effects than I do editing) to make it gel, and in the end, it feels reasonably coherent. I don't find editing to be tedious... but it requires of you to be meticulous and it can take some time until you find that sweet spot in your project when work becomes obsession... and then it's really hard to stop editing. But maybe that's just me because it's the same with every creative process, including music. It starts as a bit of a chore until I find what I'm looking for, and then I can't stop.

No, I agree. Editing is when the process really comes alive. So, which films have you been doing behind the scenes for? I need to get more into German cinema...

In Germany, I work in mainstream cinema and sometimes TV. Actually mainly as a translator of screenplays. And sometimes I end up shooting behind the scenes, making-of type stuff because I know the director and he asks me to. It's all very irrelevant mainstream stuff, children's films, stuff like that... which would be fine if it was in some way original... but it isn't... and it isn't creatively satisfying in any way... it's just a job... and sure it beats working 9-5, but that's not really enough. Which is why I do what I do on the side. I don't think you're missing much with contemporary German cinema. It's all pretty dismal and provincial. If you want to check out German cinema (actually, the reason you're not into it, may be that there isn't much to be into) better go for the past...

Thanks for your time Silver Strain! You can find Silver Strain on SoundCloud here.

Some surprisingly wise and grounded words from a man whose videos make 'American Horror Story' look like 'Play School'. 

Romany