Joe Goddard 'Lose Your Love' by Fred Rowson

Luke Bather - 7th Dec 2016

Fred Rowson takes us on a journey through the centre of the spirit in this bizarre and hilarious video for Hot Chip's Joe Goddard.

Following the burgeoning UFO-hunting spiritualist cult of 'Colour Spectrum' and some of their meetings and religious materials is an experience unto itself. Mixing VHS footage from the cult-founder in with modern day practices (bizarre rituals, outfits and custom a-plenty) are taken to the general public, who are completely baffled. A very comical look at how deeply unsuccessful a British equivalent of Heaven's Gate would be.

FRED ROWSON:

"I felt so sure that Lose Your Love had to be about a Catford-based, UFO-worshipping cult called Colour Spectrum that my treatment for the video amounted to a passive-aggressive ransom note, addressed to Joe Goddard ("Hi Joe!"), which I glued together and photocopied several times, in order to make it feel as 'authentic' as possible. The document ended with a long list of instructions, telling him what to do if he had any thoughts on the concept. These steps involved writing his thoughts down, tearing the paper into small pieces, eating it, then lighting some incense and meditating until I could receive his thoughts.

"Luckily, Johnny at Domino decided that it was okay to pass this along and, even more luckily, Joe got the joke. After that, beginning to end, this was one of the most enjoyable jobs I've done, working with my favourite people - Corin Taylor, Ryan Beck, Paul Ozgur, Hannah Hopkins, Holly Blakey, Emma Croft, Chris Bristow, Lucie Red, Kharmel Cochrane and many, many more - to create something that we all thought might be funny.

"I hope everyone else thinks so too; if you want to truly enhance your viewing experience, try lighting a joss stick while you watch, and take pleasure in the fact that this is the only music video you'll see this year with a main character called Störm. Namaste.”