behind the videos with rune puzzles

Per usual on I Enjoy Music, we love to celebrate the creative work that accompanies good music: photos, videos, comics, things of this nature.

Today on the blog we have an interview with rune puzzles, the musical alias of the Brooklyn-based soundsmith Ian Lavely. The music of rune puzzles can, and should, be categorized as experimental bedroom pop. It's loose, it's lush, it's a little wonky but not tooo wonky. rune puzzles' 2024 ep gaffe has pleasant layers, insouciant grooves, and holographic harmonies. I would describe rune puzzles songs as little explosions of colored light that leave smoky trails in their wake, like that chandelier kind of fireworks that is my favorite type of fireworks, and probably everyone else's too.

So: rune puzzles does a monthly live show called Puzzle Club along with production partner Astronaut Club. It happens in person and also streams on IG live, and afterward, footage from the show gets chopped up into wild lil snippets of 'snackable content" to feed to the hungry Reels algo. Otherwise standard concert footage gets pretzeled with over-the-top transitions, stacked with video game footage, and filtered into oblivion. It's all very Internet w/ a capital I, elevating brainrot to a more refined plane of aesthetics by pairing it with the live, organic creation of home-baked music.

rune puzzles / Puzzle Club does not fear the almighty/unholy QR code either. The unmistakeable high-contrast blotch of QR codes feature on rune puzzles stickers and on the vibey visualizers for gaffe (created by Arrien Zinghini), all of which take the scanner straight to rune puzzles' link aggregation.

I asked Ian some Qs about this über-2020s web aesthetic and the general visual approach to rune puzzles tunes...below, answers...

First, would love to hear how the IG live show came about, and what generally goes on during a puzzle club live!

Puzzle Club came about after I took my first trip to our venue, The Grassy Noll, to see an early 2000s Playstation 2 game cutscene "visual experience." I had such a great time at that first event, and loved the super unique vibe of the spot. It’s a lounge located in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC, with vintage furniture, local artist crafts, and a really great community behind it. For outsider art like mine, It was a hidden gem, and I knew if I could start my IRL/Streaming show I would like to do it there! 

As far as the concept goes, my good friend and collaborator Astronaut Club also wanted to find an outlet to perform his music in a unique environment. From the combination of our two artist names we created Puzzle Club, and figured that in line with Grassy Noll’s successful crafting community, we could incorporate actual puzzles into the mix. 

Since Grassy Noll is a lounge, we thought that it would work well If we passed out puzzle booklets (Garfield word search, Variety Puzzles, 3D illusion puzzles) and real jigsaw puzzles, for people to enjoy while we perform our music. And the concept went over well! We have puzzle enjoyers stop by not knowing it is also a music show, and I always enjoy their surprise upon the realization.

What's your process for the Puzzle Club cutdowns like this one? What program do you edit on, how do you know what clips you'd like to pair with songs, etc.?

The process of making the edits themselves is pretty straightforward. I’ll watch back my performance from the last Puzzle Club, pick out my favorite few moments (usually around 1-2 minutes total), stitch them together and then add the lower 3rd style graphics. 

I use CapCut, which has to be the easiest video editing software with the most bonkers instant FX. I’ll take a few of those FX for each different song on the cutdown, leading to a constant chaotic movement, zoom, and coloring. It’s so disarming and I love it. I hope that it conveys a sort-of satire about the whole experience. 

I think a lot about "slop"-style content and its growing popularity. Your edits definitely contain elements of the kind of brain-melting slop video that has taken over all of our feeds....but they are purposefully paired with decidedly (by me) non-slop music. Is there a place in the world for both types of art? Is slop no longer slop if made with intention? Would love to get your thoughts on this aesthetic dichotomy. 

I definitely think there is a place for slop or brain rot in our current artistic landscape. Most of it is irony poisoned, references on references that are taken out of context and have original meaning, or meanings, removed. I think that is fascinating, and the response I personally have to seeing some of the stuff pushed on social media (think Costco Guys or MDFoodieBoyz) makes me feel like most people probably project their own meaning onto this type of entertainment. The laughs that I usually get from this type of stuff seem to be from the realm of childlike wonder, really hard to tap into why I’m laughing, but enjoyable nonetheless. 

Some of this content owes its origin to the sheer availability of these video creation tools, especially for those at a young age. Plug in one image into a video editing software, hit a bunch of buttons to give it crazy video FX, add a song, and you’ve got a potential meme to post to the internet. I think we’ve never gotten a more accurate representation of the minds of the youth than through this process of creation.  

In that way, I think some of the brain rot content is made with intention, and some is made as a byproduct of the ease of access to the tools. But, I want to push forward with the idea that, yes, you can add deeper value or meaning to something that may seem incredibly inconsequential or vapid. That juxtaposition for me is something I almost always seek to include within my art. 

Any videos that you've made or Puzzle Club editions that you've done that have a special place in your heart?

The Josh Wine videos and show were definitely a highlight for me. And my 30th birthday show. Both of those also have my favorite tracks I’ve written for the puzzle club series, "Josh’s Red Wine Concerto" and "I Love My Birthday." Those two songs really took me on a journey through the songwriting process in a way I’ve never experienced before. I would be writing the lyrics and just break down laughing. Even in my most serious songs I love to add a comedic lyrical line or sound effect, even if it’s just for me. 

I also love your EP's visualizers, made by Arrien Zinghini—what's the mindset behind pairing these particular vibey abstract images with your music?

Arrien is one of my favorite visual artists working today as well as a good friend, and he took my vague instructions and ran with them incredibly. I basically asked for visualizers in the realm of things like Animal Collective videos, or the OG Windows or Mac music visualizers. Then I asked for some medieval flair, in accordance with my commitment to that theme and voila! He sent these over and I was stunned. I highly recommend checking out Arrien’s other work, including a brand new projection installation he’s launched in upstate New York.

You aren't afraid of a QR code and I love that. What are your thoughts and opinions on the rise of the QR code?

I think QR codes are crazy. Bar codes on steroids with hyperlink sensibilities. I just made stickers and t-shirts with QR codes on them and I tried my best to make what surrounds the code fun to look at. The QR code itself has a sort of brutalist vibe to them, so adding some of the renaissance era art I’ve been using for my music really made sense to me. 

They’re a strange but positive leap forward for information dissemination and marketing for small artists and businesses. At least in concept, it is to be seen how many people scan the QR code on the back of the new rune puzzles t-shirt when it is out in the wild.

What is (are) your favorite music video(s)?

My Girls by Animal Collective is definitely a top tier video for me. Sort of an anti-performance video, where all the band members are filmed playing the song, but are then rotoscoped out in favor of vibrant visualizers. Another one would be Ready, Able by Grizzly Bear. Just really awesome trippy stop motion, and a few awesome moments that sync the song to the video extremely well.

Thank you Ian! Listen to rune puzzles and check out the next Puzzle Club show.

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