The Score Magazine July 2018 issue | Page 26

SHREYA BOSE Q uirks & ueries Anushka MANCHANDA The video for Don't Be Afraid is exceptionally symbolic. With all the metaphors, do you think it could be overwhelming for the viewer? With this video we have been true to our expression, without thinking about what kind of viewer we were catering to. We did not tailor make this video for anyone. However, we were clear that we wanted to produce a certain kind of quality, and we wanted to create an emotional connection and impact. As artists we want you to feel something. As viewers we have access to so much visual information, being constantly bombarded with content, we have become desensitised. Something has to shake you out of that to make you sit up and take notice. Tell us a bit about the ethos you have created with the music and the visuals. Sonically I started layering the track quite a bit at a later stage. I wanted it to be dark and moody, and then fill with life when it arrives at the chorus. I worked on it more after I started editing the video, doing a kind of musical foley work, 24 The Score Magazine highonscore.com because I wanted this to be an audio visual experience. Once the visuals started coming together on the edit table, the opening had started to look eerie. It was then that we decided to push it all the way in that direction, picking shots and treating them to be freakier than they actually were, speeding up and reversing bits, jumping them, etc. Even the grade of the video has a story to tell. Going from dark and moody in the opening, to dreamy in the underwater section, and finally quite saturated and full of colour in the end section. Amidst the overarching elegance, there is an undercurrent of darkness. Things ending, people in pain. How often do you see the world through this lens of suffering? Art is a reflection of the times. Look around you. What do you see? We are in a state of destruction. I could create art that helps you to escape it, but we are distracted and apathetic enough as it is. What I see in the world around me, is what you see through my art. The photo story I did called Mute, the first project I did via Nuka, is also in the same line of thought. I never really thought about this though, that this is the way I view the world, and this question evokes