“I imagine us as a rock band, trapped inside of a nightclub,” says frontman Harry Parsons of the Newfoundland rave punk band Ctrl+V (pronounced paste). After more than a decade of being a drummer in touring bands, he began to experiment with making electronic music. Along with co-writer/producer Sweetboy Music, the songwriting soon began to flow, and the pair began shaping their sound, influenced by darkwave, hard rock, and a dash of punk.

Their debut EP, Prequels, is dark, yet optimistic. Mysterious yet fun. The bittersweet opening track, “Apple Blue,” sets the mood with a feeling of isolation and loneliness. “The title puts me in a neo-noir film headspace. It’s like a David Lynch version of a heavy song,” says Parsons.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

Apple Blue was the 2nd song that Ctrl+V ever wrote. It’s a personal and a fan favourite, so I wanted to put together a little visual piece for it. For me, the song was evoking some imagery of constantly falling through space. I had envisioned the idea of the Ctrl+V text falling down the screen, basically like falling cards. It took a little while to find a motion graphics designer, but we eventually found Michael Speed, through the powers of the internet. We noticed that he had worked with Interpol, which we thought was pretty cool. After some discussion with him, he can back with basically the final version of the video. Instead of the Ctrl+V simply falling straight down the screen, Michael had the idea of giving some other types of directional movement around the screen, to spice things up a little extra. He also came up with the really awesome looking flashes of the Dusk Rider mask on the screen, during some key moments of the song. 

2.What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

My idea of the falling cards was basically the main inspiration for the video. I really wanted to emphasize the Ctrl+V logo, and make sure it was a very repetitive element of the video. I also related to Michael that I often enjoy when some colors are meshed together, which would not traditionally go together. I put together a mood board with some pictures that demonstrated this, and it certainly helped inspire how the video turned out.

3.What was the process of making this video?

The making of the Apple Blue video was done completely by distance. We are in Canada, and Michael is England. But it was very simple, in general. Just a few emails back and forth. We had come up with a Mood Board, which we shared with Michael, to help establish a color palette, and overall vibe for the video. He took that and ran with it, which is how we ended up with the nice orange and blue theme for the chorus part of the song.
This road to glossy and gritty darkwavey goodness was augmented by producers/mixers John Fryer and Mark Needham (who mixed the The Killers’ debut album, Hot Fuss) and the guidance of Ted Sablay (touring guitarist with The Killers), giving the songs a slick and heavy delivery.