Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, Ex-Partner carves a distinctive presence in the music scene. Initially grounded in the raw, unfiltered roots of punk and experimental music, Ex-Partner’s sound universe has since broadened, exploring the shadowy realms of the electronic spectrum. Industrial, post-punk, and ambient styles now colour their compositions, each track imbued with intricate baroque melodies and an unabashedly garish showmanship.
Their new song, “Kids, it Makes no Difference,” is an ethereal ode to the world of slumber and dreams, a musical voyage into the realm of sleep and the fantastical landscapes it creates. The piece is a lullaby of sorts, coaxing listeners to leave reality behind and journey into the twilight world of dreams.
“The bed is an ex that you can’t help but be drawn back to every night, despite the bad influence of instantly available comfort,” says the artist. “In dreams, you experience your ancestors, the history leading up to your birth, the origin of new, violent social divisions – as well as a slew of half-remembered, neurally reconfigured media.”
The captivating music video sets a dramatic stage within a stark, 3D-rendered bedroom. In it, an enigmatic figure constantly morphs into various famous faces, embodying the universal symbol of defiance by continually flipping the bird. The creation of this mesmerizing visualizer had a peculiar inception, as Ex-Partner recounts, “I stumbled upon this Jon Rafman-esque image on the internet – a snapshot of a young lad, just woken up and covered in ink scribbles, flipping off his prankster friends.”
Spurred by this imagery, Ex-Partner staged a raw self-timer photoshoot, recreating this scene in their own style. Collaborator Josh Harris then joined the artistic endeavor, their combined talents and the advanced capabilities of 3D modeling, as well as Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image based software, eventually bringing this distinctive visualizer to life.
“Basically, I would send Josh prompts that he would enter into the software like, “Machine Gun Kelly pulling the finger shirtless” or “JK Rowling pulling the finger in a dark robe.”
The outputs from these prompts were then edited with the song and original photo, melding into a ‘jittering nightmare.’
Watch the video below:
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