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Hamish Kilgour – “Smile” + David Kilgour – “Lose Myself in Sound” (videos) (Premieres)

This year saw new efforts by the first family of the New Zealand underground, the brothers Kilgour. PopMatters premieres new videos from Hamish and David Kilgour.

This has been a busy year for the first family of the New Zealand underground: In addition to re-forming the Clean for a crowd-pleasing U.S. jaunt, the brothers Kilgour released albums with their own acts, David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights with End Times Undone (Merge) and Hamish Kilgour’s first solo outing, All of It and Nothing (Ba Da Bing!). Here, PopMatters premieres videos from each effort, “Smile” from Hamish Kilgour and “Lose Myself in Sound” from David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights. Together, they convey what’s enduring and endearing about Kiwi indie-pop, with the rough-hewn jangle of the introspective “Smile” and the glimmering guitar-rock drive of “Lose Myself in Sound”.

Both videos were directed by their friend Michael Galinsky, formerly of the band Sleepyhead and whose film credits include the indie-rock-themed Half-Cocked. On the making of the videos for the Kilgour brothers, Galinsky explains: “I make a lot of photos. So sometimes when I’m thinking about a music video I’m also thinking about photos I might have that I can use. My family got kittens about two weeks ago and I was taking a lot of pictures of them. Hamish had stayed with me a few days before the Clean came to town, and asked me to make a video for his solo record. The kinetic nature of ‘Smile’ made me think about working with pictures of the kittens. I got down on the floor with them and just shot as if I was making an animation. Then I started to create little repetitions of movement. Hamish wanted it to be a bit psychedelic so we added in some color and it just came together.

Hamish Kilgour – “Smile”

“I showed the video to his brother David. He liked it a lot, so I asked if he wanted one as well. He sent me a couple of songs and when I listened to ‘Lose Myself in Sound’, I thought about a set of images I made one day in June while walking around midtown Manhattan. I tried dropping a bunch of pictures on the timeline and they made sense.”

David Kilgour – “Lose Myself in Sound”