Last month, we saw the intriguing video for Beach Fossils offshoot DIIV's jangle-pop single "How Long Have You Known?", culled from their upcoming debut album Oshin. In the clip, frontman Z. Cole Smith dismantles a number of objects (an American flag, Nirvana cassettes, a lava lamp, etc.) and stuffs them into a blender. He then fires a roman candle at the mixture, which then blows up, and Smith turns the resulting goo into an easily consumable pill.
Speaking with Exclaim!, Smith confesses that the video's explosive climax was far more dramatic than he had originally intended. "That was a fucking nightmare," he says, the exasperation audible in his voice. "I had no idea that was going to happen."
By the time Smith got around to lighting the firework, he explains that he was exhausted from filming, and his hands were bleeding from dismantling mechanical objects (specifically a toaster). The roman candle, he believed, would provide a small but interesting touch to the climax of the clip.
"I thought that the roman candle would hit the wax [from the lava lamp] in the blender and just go out," he explains. "So we had the blender on and I shot one shot in and it worked perfectly, and then the second one -- there were four camera people all around me with all rented gear. They were all right close to me trying to get the shot, and then I fucking shot the firework and it just exploded the blender everywhere while it was on.
"We're in this tiny room and the firework is going off. It sounds like a gun shot, this loud-ass roman candle. I'm trying to run out of the room with the roman candle in my hand, but since the blender exploded, there was wax everywhere, and I just couldn't stand up. I kept slipping and falling on the ground with this firework in my hand, trying to shoot it at the floor. All of the rented equipment, all the cameras, everybody's clothes were just completely, completely covered in this pink wax. I ran out into the streets of L.A. where we shot it, with the fucking firework going off, and all of these people are running out of their houses and being like, 'What's happening?'"
Luckily, they were able to clean the rented cameras and nothing was permanently damaged. Well, almost nothing. "The dude Kyle says that it still smells like smoke in there," says Smith.
Watch the video for yourself below.
As previously reported, Oshin comes out on Tuesday (June 26) through Captured Tracks.
Speaking with Exclaim!, Smith confesses that the video's explosive climax was far more dramatic than he had originally intended. "That was a fucking nightmare," he says, the exasperation audible in his voice. "I had no idea that was going to happen."
By the time Smith got around to lighting the firework, he explains that he was exhausted from filming, and his hands were bleeding from dismantling mechanical objects (specifically a toaster). The roman candle, he believed, would provide a small but interesting touch to the climax of the clip.
"I thought that the roman candle would hit the wax [from the lava lamp] in the blender and just go out," he explains. "So we had the blender on and I shot one shot in and it worked perfectly, and then the second one -- there were four camera people all around me with all rented gear. They were all right close to me trying to get the shot, and then I fucking shot the firework and it just exploded the blender everywhere while it was on.
"We're in this tiny room and the firework is going off. It sounds like a gun shot, this loud-ass roman candle. I'm trying to run out of the room with the roman candle in my hand, but since the blender exploded, there was wax everywhere, and I just couldn't stand up. I kept slipping and falling on the ground with this firework in my hand, trying to shoot it at the floor. All of the rented equipment, all the cameras, everybody's clothes were just completely, completely covered in this pink wax. I ran out into the streets of L.A. where we shot it, with the fucking firework going off, and all of these people are running out of their houses and being like, 'What's happening?'"
Luckily, they were able to clean the rented cameras and nothing was permanently damaged. Well, almost nothing. "The dude Kyle says that it still smells like smoke in there," says Smith.
Watch the video for yourself below.
As previously reported, Oshin comes out on Tuesday (June 26) through Captured Tracks.