Chords for Grimes Talks “Violence” Music Video and Taking Inspiration From Bollywood and TikTok

_ _ _ Hey, I'm Grimes.
[G] Today I'm going to be taking you through my violence music video.
This is Playback.
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [G] I mean, I feel like the thing about this music video is that [Fm] everything we planned for it
to be completely failed in [C] every capacity, but then it kind of turned out really well
sort of despite that.
We'd been shooting for six hours.
We hadn't gotten any of the shots we [D] wanted.
Like there were just issues with the lighting.
There's issues with the location.
It was a total frickin' mess.
It ended up being this weird [Cm] sort of more performance video than the [N] concept that we had.
Sometimes you just capture a performance where you're like, oh, this is just great.
[Eb] I'm usually super [C] stressed on music videos, so randomly I was in a good mood for the last hour. _
_ _ [C] _ _ _
So this was shot at this church called Vibiano.
Everything is all white.
There's this program called ZBrush, which is for 3D modeling and sculpting and that
kind of thing.
And when you make stuff in ZBrush, everything's all kind of white or gray.
I've always been really into the [Gm] aesthetics of this program.
And so I was [F] like, oh yeah, this church will look like, we'll just pretend we're in like
a unrendered 3D modeling program.
That was kind of like supposed to be the concept.
It obviously doesn't look that way.
So that was one of our things was like when we got on set and started filming, we're like,
okay, this doesn't look anything like what we were planning for it to look like.
We only spent maybe six hours filming.
That was part of what was so stressful is they had really limited hours.
It was definitely like a [G] very intense day and [Gm] pretty much everything you see is from
the [C] last hour.
That's why there's sort of all these glimpses of shots where you're like, oh, she's wearing
a [F] different outfit and [Cm] there's robot dogs.
And we really wanted to just be in the uncanny valley [C]
between the real church and the fake
church and like the girls dancing versus [F] like 3D models of the girls dancing.
I guess it's sort of a meditation on the nature of [D] violence because, you know, by like removing
our physicality, you start [Cm] to consider like, [F] can violence be translated into the digital [Bb] realm? _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Fm] _
I'm [Cm] obsessed with like the history of warfare.
It's actually one of my main [Bb] interests probably.
So I like all weapons, but swords are easy [Eb] to obtain, like costume places.
I know a lot of people with a lot of swords and I own a lot of swords.
I guess I just, I love the juxtaposition of like fashion, the loaded imagery of a weapon,
but swords I feel like are abstracted from like real violence because it's like people
are mostly not [C] killing people with swords.
_ _ _ _ [Eb]
Everything about this music video, it's insane that it turned out good because it was like
everything was falling apart until literally _ minutes before we were shooting.
But my stylist, Turner, just like randomly showed up with this stuff.
So we were shooting the dance scene and like I couldn't stop making like really dumb facial
expressions and like I was like, I can't keep it together.
Like, ah, and [Gm] then again, Turner, my stylist, [Eb] just pulled out these masks and [C] I was like,
oh, thank God.
Basically, I had [F] like a mental breakdown during the choreography scene [Cm] and wearing a mask
was the only way to surpass the moment.
[Fm] The choreographer is named Netski [Eb] and I've known her for like eight years now.
She [C] danced for me like way back in the day.
We're trying to hire choreographers [F] and then I was just like, man, we should just call
Netski because she's very talented.
Like she does a lot of like freestyling and stuff.
The choreography was like very inspired by this girl, Cindy on TikTok.
[C] It's like all this weird kind of like gun shit, but it's like cute hand choreography,
which I really like.
I actually haven't danced in like 10 years.
This was all real fast.
Like I learned most of it in an hour.
We only did two rehearsals.
No, no, we didn't actually say, the dancing was very like natural and just easy and just
sort of happened.
Like it was [F] like quite a seamless, when things are easy, they're almost always good in art.
_ [Cm] _ _ [C] _ Someone on the set asked me [D] earlier what my biggest inspiration is and I [C] guess in a weird
way, I feel like probably my biggest [Bb] inspiration is like Bollywood stuff [F] just because my stepdad's
Indian and I kind of grew up, you know, surrounded by Bollywood stuff and just, I guess it's
a big influence on me.
Like, you know, like the super overdubbed, like tight vocals, like the verb and like
in the film Dil Se, the song Satyarangi Re, the video for it and song is just like probably
one of my biggest influences in the world and [Eb] it's literally one of the greatest pieces
of art I've ever seen.
It's, [D]
if you could count [F] it as a music video, I think it's like one of the best music videos ever made.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ Well, I started directing music videos, I guess [Cm] out of _ necessity.
The [Bb] first music video I ever [Ab] shot, it was just like a mess.
Like I was like, this is a [Eb] fricking disaster.
And my friend was a DP, so I was like, hey John, [F] shout out John Londono, because he lets
me use his studio for free and his cameras for free, which basically is why I have a
career so always shout out John Londono.
I was like, this is a mess.
What are we going to do?
And he's like, it's a mess.
You can come shoot something in my studio like tomorrow [C] for a different song and we'll
just like make something and we'll make it [F] good and we'll like sneak it [Eb] out before this
other music video is coming out.
You know, calling friends like, I'll give you like [F] booze and cookies.
I just made a bunch of food, spent like 20 bucks on alcohol and was just like, if people
just please show up, we'll just make [G] something on the spot.
But it was like really fun and it turned out really well and it was like sort of like mini-viral.
I just noticed that things were better [Fm] if I was at the helm, I [C] suppose.
I've become much more [Eb] professional since then, but that's sort of how [F] I started directing.
It allows you to hold the paintbrush, I guess.
_ _ _ _ [G] _
_ I work very closely with my brother.
He's kind of my primary creative partner on [Db] visual stuff.
We're not actually twins, but we have like the same identical taste pretty much.
So he's just a very reliable [G] person with creative stuff.
Like I know if I'm like, can you go handle that?
Like I don't need to be approving things.
I know it'll just be good.
So I've kind of just been giving him a bigger role and a bigger role and he's pretty involved
in the music videos.
Honestly, [Abm] I think the thing I like best about this music video and the reason we shot this
actually is the song wasn't even supposed to be on my album.
I just made the song with this guy, Iyo, which is something I don't normally do.
And because I hadn't actually spent that much time on it.
So this is like one situation where I was just like, man, I still love this song.
I'm playing this song in the car all the time.
Like, let's just like change the first single and make it the song.
And everyone was like, this is a terrible idea.
But I was like, I just, I need to make a music video for something that I'm currently loving.
I feel you can tell that I'm like digging the song and the video as opposed to like
the song giving me PTSD from having spent way too much time on it.
Yeah, I mean, everything about this just has like a joyousness to it, I think, [Eb] because
I wasn't as burnt out as I normally am.
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] _