Video Premiere: Libby Quinn outlives all of us on “HA (Gabaldon)”
Photo Credit: Alvin Kean Wong
It’s the end of the world and Libby Quinn knows it.
Today New York experimental punk act Libby Quinn shares the video for “HA (Gabaldon)”. It’s a terrifying and laughable story of the end times in a parallel dimension where evil prevails and the rest of us ascend to our deaths.
“In the most literal terms, this is a story about the High Priest’s fantastic cult, set in the Fantasma Realm,” says video director Nuno Belmar. “A benevolent Hero is slain, and his blood is consumed in a ritual which results in catastrophic consequences for all of us here on Planet Earth. An evil megalomaniac wins, and his Disciples and Apostles and Followers gleefully celebrate the oncoming rapture. It’s horrific but it's also kind of funny.”
The video interpolates black and white scenes and animations of the disastrous story as Libby Quinn performs the song in an empty warehouse. Perhaps they’re a part of it, or maybe they’re spared. Did they know what was coming? Regardless, Belmar fully captures the frantic energy portrayed by band members Joshua Boucicaut, Tim Matishek, Tyler Baron, Sanghyun Dino Kim and Jacob Mario Hoi. If you’ve seen the band live, you know they are magnetic.
As Belmar explains, he came up with the concept after meeting the band online. “I met Libby Quinn through the Black Midi subreddit, and instantly knew I wanted to pitch something for them," he says. “It’s Libby Quinn, so I always knew the video had to be insanely fast-paced and maximalist. When I heard the demo, I was struck by how apocalyptic it felt, and figured the stakes needed to operate on a global scale. This intuition, paired with a desire to test out some esoteric world-building, and added by some strange fetish I have with making people fly, led to this odd little cross-dimensional video. I was mostly inspired by FromSoftware games, horror films like Mandy, and saved clips from late-night YouTube and Instagram rabbit holes.” The amalgamation of these ideas led Belmar to create something fascinating and fearless.
Check out the video below!
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Today we’re excited to premiere the brand new video for “HA (Gabaldon)” by experimental punk act Libby Quinn. The video, directed by Nuno Belmar, is a tragicomedy inspired by Japanese video game developer FromSoftware, Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy and late night internet scrolls. Read all about the concept and watch the video!