Stealing Sheep return with “Apparition”, the third single to be released from their critically acclaimed second album Not Real.
Accompanied by a playful video, directed by Dougal Wilson, in his first music video in 6 years, that creates the illusion of a candid one shot in an unassuming village square witnessing a group of Morris dancers that are infiltrated by the band.
The band explains “we liked the idea because the English folk imagery juxtaposes the moody synth style of the music. The Morris dancing goes surprisingly well with the electronic drums and made us laugh! We love the dreamlike flow of the choreography and the camera. It was Dougal that first introduced us to a female experimental film maker from the 50's called Maya Deren and her style really influenced our visual when we began working on our album, exploring dreams, subjective reality and streams of consciousness"
Wilson elaborates:
"The idea for ‘Apparition’ came from the fact that the song had a mysterious, hypnotic feeling, and the fact that I’ve always found Morris Dancing slightly strange and psychedelic.
I’d also wanted to re-visit Morris Dancing since I made a Four Tet video in 2003, where I simply cut existing Morris footage to music.
Since then, I’d always wanted to take the idea further by actually having a band learn Morris Dancing themselves, and this seemed like an appropriate opportunity given the unexpected contrast of the girls' personalities with the characters in a genuine Morris side.
Very luckily for me, Emily, Becky and Lucy, were very conscientious and learnt their dance steps very well. I also thought it would be appropriate to attempt to capture it in one (apparently) continuous take, as Morris dancing seems to always shot by one camera when it appears on Youtube."
Following a hugely busy and successful festival season, which included an appearance at David Byrne’s Meltdown, Stealing Sheep are about to embark on a equally busy Autumn live schedule which includes support shows with Django Django and further performances of the In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited series (in Dublin, Bristol and Paris) alongside Villagers, Stuart Staples, Mick Harvey and Jehnny Beth from Savages. The band will also be performing in NYC as part of CMJ. Upcoming live info below:
Friday 10 December – BRUSSELS – AB w/ Django Django
