behind the music video with jangus kangus
A festive cake oozes bright red jam. A lady washes dishes, then wrings water from the sponge directly into her mouth. Two lovers make out on one end of a couch while a third person sits sheepishly on the other end, glitter sparkling on their cheeks.
These are just a few indelible moments in the video for "You Only Love Me When," the yearn-forward new folk-rock single from the Los Angeles band Jangus Kangus. I met Jasmine Sankaran, who leads the band, at a Sun Kin show last year and was hopeful that I could eventually find a good blog angle (blongle) for the music she makes...
...behold, we now have an incredible music video that she directed and to which many other Jangus Kangus members contributed creatively—it was shot by Antonio White, who plays lead guitar, edited by drummer Dan Perdomo, and styled by Stephanie Anderson, who plays keys and does backup vocals.
The "You Only Love Me When" video takes the lyrical content of the song, which details a one-sided relationship fueled by partying ("You only love me when I’m drunk / I wanna love you all the time"), and swirls it into a surreal narrative fueled by a tremendous amount of crimson jelly, starring actors Celine Hoppe and Shannon Gibbs as "strawberry" and "janice." The whole thing is deeply weird and surprisingly emotional, and I was thrilled to get to ask Sankaran some questions about the making of the video. Let's go...
[Molly Mary O'Brien] I see a clear connection between the lyrics of "You Only Love Me When" and the video's narrative—how did you all flesh out the storyline and characters? Did the final story end up far from where it started or was it pretty consistent throughout?
[Jasmine Sankaran] We had so many conversations that shaped this music video, pulling from our own experiences, talking about what we wanted to see in a music video. There was a point in which Antonio and Steph had an idea about depicting two women in a souring relationship, then I had this other idea about a person who is addicted to berries, and Tim [Burnham, who produced the video] proposed combining the two. We were operating on the principle that every moment had to have some mix of humor, sincerity, and repulsiveness.
How long did the shoot take, and how did production go in general? Any surprises or unexpected moments?
The bulk of the video was done over two days. We started with the last shot and ended with the first shot. There is a ton of material we came up with and material we shot that didn't make the final cut because the song is so short! Working with jam and pulling off many of the visuals ended up being really brutal in person: Celine messily chugging jam, Shannon cleaning berries out of the shower drain, the floor covered in sticky confetti. We had initially filmed a shot of Shannon throwing the glass toward camera. Shannon, it just so happens, is the softball player pelting the Jackass guys' nuts in Jackass 4.5. [ed. note - oh my GOD] Every time she threw the breakaway glass it was very intense.
There are so many clever / affecting / absurd shots in this video. I would love to hear about any that you're especially proud of, and any fun behind-the-scenes stories about how you pulled them off!
The spongewater scene might be my favorite—it came to me in a dream, or maybe the liminal space between waking and dreaming. Every time I told someone about it they would wince, which is how I knew it would be visceral and memorable. The day we shot it we used factory-fresh sponges but there was some lingering residue on them and Celine literally ended up with a mouthful of soap (sorry girl). Amazingly she was still game to do another take after that.
The jelly-cake, bathroom rug, and glass breaking gags took a lot of late nights and trial-and-error. It's really hard to make jam run out of a giant, hollow styrofoam cake. Dan took all our mad science experiments and put together a really funny edit.
What was it like to direct these fabulous main actors? And how about directing a pretty sizable crowd of extras?
Celine Hoppe and Shannon Gibbs, our lead actors, were so adept at bringing the arc of this relationship to life and making the surreal world feel really grounded. Celine is a director in her own right and a veteran scare actor at Halloween Horror Nights. She was really at home with the jam effects and game for the fucked up premise. Shannon knew instinctively how to embody her character's conflicted feelings and portray the moment she discovers her own agency. She brought out a lot of great improvised moments and gave us a wealth of hilarious and heartfelt material.
Wrangling this many background actors was a new experience. It was fun bringing in my friends and fellow artists. We assigned specific actions for every role, such as Yuumi guiltily eating a slice of the cake at the end. Tim has a great eye for composing people—he deserves the credit for how immersive the party scenes feel.
It's incredible that the creative roles in the video were filled by so many people within the band itself. How did you become a band in the first place? And how would you describe the way you work together as a group?
Dan and Antonio were my nextdoor neighbors when I lived in Echo Park years ago (around 2017). The whole floor of our building was creatives; it was very bohemian. We got to go to shows and share a lot of our favorite art with each other. I had a different lineup for my band at the time. Dan began as a substitute drummer for my band, and these days he's like the other half of my brain. Antonio started as my keyboard player and plays keys on the album, but he stepped in to fill the lead guitarist position when it opened up. Steph joined in doing backing vocals on the record and, being classically trained on piano, was a natural fit to be our keyboardist. We scouted out Ryan through our friend network. We're all pretty much family at this point.
I would still say JK is centered around my songwriting, but I'm a firm believer in Rick Rubin's adage "Demonstrate everything." If anyone has an idea, we try it out.
The styling of this video is amazing. Was there any particular visual inspiration you were working from / anything in particular on yr 'moodboard'?
I knew going in I wanted it to feel contemporary and feminine, like a fantasy. I pulled from Vogue editorials and the Anthropologie catalog. The jam/picnic table print was the big jumping off point. Steph has great style and put together outfits that give us insight into the characters' worlds: the gnome hat, the strawberry shortcake dress. We also pulled cinematic inspiration from films like Tampopo, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Jeanne Dielmann, Blue Valentine, and Carrie.
Gotta ask as a jelly fan....was that actual jelly, or did you fake it with some other substance?
Some of the jars on screen are filled with red jello and frozen strawberries, but any time you see moving jam it's real jam. We tried other concoctions but that was the only thing that gave us accurate movement, texture, and shine. The ooze was important. We played with mixing brands and kinds of jam. Every key moment featuring jam required its own recipe.
On a scale of 1-10, how messy was this shoot to do and clean up?
I don't even know how to quantify how messy this shoot was, but I'll say this: jam does not wash out without a fight. We went through gobs of paper towels, rolls of plastic sheeting. Jam on the camera lens. And of course mountains of props and design materials. I'm eternally grateful to our crew who stepped in and helped clean up the disaster. We shot this four months ago but I think Antonio is still finding confetti in his home.
Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 28, 2021
video credits:
Directed by Jasmine Sankaran
Produced by Tim Burnham
Cinematography by Antonio White
Production Design by Tim Burnham and Yuumi White
Edited by Dan Perdomo
Lighting by Greg Urich
Styling by Stephanie Anderson
Hair, Makeup, and Jam Wrangling by Shy Elizabeth
Color by Roxy Alis
Music Recorded and Produced by Mike Post at Moosecat Recording, Los Angeles, CA.
Thank you Jasmine! Listen to "You Only Love Me When" and watch the music video, duh.
Thanks for reading I Enjoy Music! If you like it, tell a friend.
