Flogging Molly
Flynn Productions directorial duo, Kari & Saul were enlisted by Flogging Molly to make the band’s latest music video for single ‘Float’, due for release on SideOneDummy Records on 13th April 2009. The song is the title track from the band’s 2008 full-length.
With the video for ‘Float’, Flogging Molly were determined to do something different and the concept they eventually settled on has evolved into an evocative and cinematic piece of work. Dave King of the band says “When we first started considering a video for ‘Float’, all the ideas with the band in it seemed very generic. We had concepts with the band on a boat, then going to a bar. They seemed ridiculous. Then we decided to do something that we've never done before. This idea came about. We went along with it. It's a piece of art in itself, you know. I mean, you could put it on before a movie in a theater, and it would go down really well I think.”
Karni & Saul are the collaborative talents of art and fashion photographer Karni & 3D director and animator Saul. Their combined practices have created a unique live action/animation crossover style where real worlds are often fantastical and animated elements beautifully tangible. Recent commercial campaigns & music videos include: Nokia’s worldwide commercial campaign, the beautifully observed animation piece for BBC DAB Radio as well as music promos for Turin Brakes and Beth Orton.
Created using the duo’s trademark mix of stop-frame, 3D animation and live action, their latest music promo for Flogging Molly follows a tired and frail sticklike character with unusual walrus-like features, as he takes us on an epic journey through a variety of landscapes onwards towards the sea, collecting and adding to his body discarded and everyday objects, transforming his minimal fame into an elaborate moving montage of objects. As we follow our character dragging his heavy limbs down through the sand dunes, and across a desolate beach towards the shoreline, we see for the first time the final result of his toils - his body transformed into a beautifully orchestrated sailing vessel. In the final moments of the film we witness our character being battered by the icy incoming waves as the evening sun sets on the horizon.
When Flogging Molly first saw the video, they were taken aback - “It was really special.” says King. “It really seemed to lend itself to what the song was about. You have a character who goes through life, picking up all these things that could get him down. Hopefully at the end of the day, he can keep his head above the water. Simple as that.” King says that if they were to name the animated character they would name him ‘Baldrick’ after the Blackadder series, perhaps echoing the idea of someone who goes through many trials but manages to get through them!
Founded in Los Angeles in 1997 by expatriate Dave King, Flogging Molly got its start and its name from a local bar called Molly Malone’s where the band played and grew and laid down the blueprint for its eventual success. As every member of Flogging Molly will emphatically explain, there were no predetermined expectations for the band’s sound. Traditional Celtic instruments like violin, mandolin and accordion blended seamlessly with grinding guitars and pounding drums. Without consciously attempting it, Flogging Molly merged the music of King’s childhood in Dublin with the music of his adulthood in L.A.
Flogging Molly’s latest album, Float, recorded in King’s native Ireland, delivers still another iteration of the band’s sonic evolution. Hard charging tunes ‘Paddy’s Lament’ and ‘You Won’t Make a Fool Out of Me’ give way, as listeners have come to expect, to more sober ruminations on tracks such as forthcoming single ‘Float.’ The overall effect is a symphonic layering of sound that possesses a unique rhythmic flow from boisterous to bereaved and back again.