Wednesday 5 September 2012

Weds 5th Sept: Zaiba Jabbar for Seye's "Mexicana Bounce"












One of ASVOFF winning directors Zaiba Jabbar has just released her latest film work in the form of music video for Seye (pronounced "Shey-ah").  The Afrobeats-influenced electropop musician colours his songwriting fusing sounds from across continents which Zaiba has tapped into and translated for "Mexicana Bounce"  with a multicolour treatment.  Watching it I literally thought it was shot in Mexico with the beaming bright sun and blue sky but as it turns out it was all carried out on a standard English rainy summer day!  To battle the elements and capture the storyboard's exotic essence, Zaiba teamed up with a crew of creatives including artist Josephine Chime on the cosmic vignettes: 

"I kind of ran with the Mexicana theme and it dawned on me that a pop up beach on a roof top would be a great way to create our own Seye world, full of fun and colour. Amazing art direction from my friend Ruth Crawford and the alternative postcards were a cool way to have some interesting in-camera fun and transitions made by Josephine Chime. I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of a frame within a frame- that became literal with the frames of the sunglasses too. I loved the idea of incorporating a 2d world into our 3d world. Our beach facade was made by illustrator Tess Redburn.
It's such a great track too and Seye was such a great artist to work with!  As you can tell the shoot was pretty wet, it rained for most of the day... but everyone mucked in and I think it came across as being pretty sunny!" 


Bromley based Seye who now has his own solo sound 'The Future of Afro Music' was born in Nigeria moving between Lagos, Holland, Ecuador and ending up in south-east London with his five older brothers and sisters – one of whom, Gbenga, is the bass player with Metronomy.  I recognised this signature hairstyle from one of his early musical stints as session guitarist as part of Paloma Faith's band.  More recently he's been spending time on tour with  with Lana Del Ray as support and just finished another with Emeli Sandé. BUT the main news of note (pun intended) at the moment is that Seye has been aboard the Africa Express train with Damon Albarn's collective, taking a revolving mix of musicans around the country this week for which there are still tickets!  Keep up to speed with all of Seye's upcoming news over at his Facebook, Twitter & site.
Thanks to Zaiba for these behind the scenes pictures - see her back catalogue of work on her site here


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