Have you ever had that feeling that someone may be following you? You can see them in the corner of your eye, lingering in the shadows. The feeling of someone else’s eyes on you makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention. It’s a classic horror trope, one that will be revisited countlessly through different stories as we approach Halloween this weekend. While we have seen a fair few killer spooky clips in the past, (The Creases and Gareth Thomas have done it really well in particular), Los Angeles duo Bür Gür take the cake for creepiest video for their single Neighbors.
Don’t you hate it when your creepy stalker is in your favourite porno? LA duo Bür Gür and director Dustin Krapes give us a stellar video for Neighbors.
Bür Gür is Corbin Clarke and Makan Negahban, two childhood mates who started making music together a couple of years ago. The pair released their debut album Alligator Cheesecake last year and are now preparing their sophomore release Have You Lost Your Faith in God? The first taste of that is Neighbors, and the video for it is definitely something else. Directed by Dustin Krapes, the clip follows a young man facing the possibility that he’s being followed by the most persistent stalker in history. Hiding in a washing basket takes commitment after all.
“Musically, the kernel of it came from just playing around with chords on the acoustic guitar” the band reveal. “It’s one of those songs that could have gone in 100 different directions. I could see us making it sound like a Strokes song in some parallel universe. Lyrically, it deals with the insecurity of getting abandoned but being okay with that and proceeding appropriately.” That idea of abandonment plays out well in the video, as our scrappy hero is somewhat at a loss as to who his pursuer is yet shares a complicated bond with him, one that grows and intensifies.
The video for Neighbors is brilliant in that it seamlessly morphs from goofy, to creepy, to an all out bloodbath in the space of four minutes. The pacing is excellent as the tension mounts steadily until it all boils over in the final moments. It helps that Krapes and the band got on so well, their collective vision for the clip coming together nicely. “We met Dustin through playing music in and around LA. We went on a couple of tours with his band Habits and he put out our first record on his label How to Be a Microwave. He’s been experimenting with video stuff for a while now and we’ve been around to help him out so it felt natural we’d collaborate on something.”
“We love working with Dustin and it was awesome collaborating with Phil Miller and Ryan Bergmann who were the main actors in the video. Ryan plays bass in the band Retox, and isn’t really an actor, so it was exciting to see him stepping out of his comfort zone and committing to the lead role. Phil was great and really patient for taking on a role that required almost no movement. We are very grateful to them for lending their talents.”
Manic, thrilling and sometimes a little silly, Neighbors is the perfect clip for Halloween viewing. And remember, the man in the mirror may not be who you think he is.
