The Maccabees 'Marks To Prove It' by Joe Connor

The Maccabees are back after three years, with a third album due out in the summer paired with an exciting music video trilogy by Joe Connor.

This first video, for the recently unveiled single Marks To Prove it, is part-documentation of the Elephant and Castle area through time-lapse footage, part-surreal narrative, with cutaways to the band in their rehearsal-space formation.

The video follows a suited city-dweller on an average London commute, through satisfyingly high-energy time lapse footage. Suddenly the documentatary-style video turns into something else altogether, as the man walks into a puddle and falls into a parallel universe. 

"The album has eventually found itself with a specific set of musical and lyrical themes," explains Maccabees guitarist Felix White, "And though our original brief was pretty loose, we knew that we wanted to explore place, particularly Elephant & Castle, where our studio is based, and the idea that there are a variety of things in everyday life that we learn to accept as natural rhythm but are in fact either disconcerting or odd or beautiful or surreal."

There was also innovation in the way the video was shot - as Joe Connor explains below - to offer a new perspective on city life. And overall there's a sense of unpredictability about this first video in the trilogy that makes the viewer hungry for more...

JOE CONNOR:

"It's been an unbelievable pleasure to show this, the first of a trilogy of videos I’ve made for The Maccabees.  It's really rare to be able to curate a whole album of videos, each one considered as part of a whole narrative across the album rather then individual parts, so to be asked to do it for one of my favourite bands was a real pleasing moment. 

"The task from the band was to create a trilogy of videos based around Elephant and Castle. Looking at the way people move around this area, the hustle and the bustle, the energy, the flow and relentless cascade of people, buses and cars, it felt like the perfect place to kick off the three videos. It can be a cacophonous place at times and then also what happens if you stop and take a look around, how surreal the mundane can become if the right light is shone on it.  

"The real star of this first video is the amazing AVATAR camera developed by artist Marc Owens and collaborated with Oztex camera services. Marc has created the most ingenious of camera rigs that from only 20cm from the person's body we can get a head-to-toe shot, a truly amazing feat that miraculously doesn't involve a wide angle lens at all.  Marc was ace in allowing us to use his invention and what it brings into this video is a truly stand out viewpoint - a commuter angle. 

"I hope you like the video, The Elephant is changing beyond all recognition so the hope is that these videos document the place as it is in some way." And check in for instalments two and three in the future..."