This Mad Desire is Mackenzie Kristjon’s rock and roll brand, specializing in indie rock that has been described as “like Neil Young on David Bowie drugs.” Kristjon is Icelandic-Canadian songwriter and author who operates in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton area. 

“Ready For The Weekend” is a collaboration between Kristjon and Marcus Manderson a.k.a. Da Fingaz. The two met at an online music industry event and discussed a collaboration. Manderson provided instrumentals for a real swinging R&B/disco vibe so Kristjon wanted to accentuate that party atmosphere. To get there, he added a dreamlike, almost psychedelic bridge where we could hear our various participants musing about their future weekend plans before we launch into the final choruses. He also added some really upfront, funky bass to increase the “Shake Your Booty” quotient.

The collaboration goes further, connecting musicians all over North America. Dan Konopka from OK Go played drums for this track in Hollywood, Kristen Prince played sax in Toronto, and the background singers come from the following cities: Calgary, Guelph, Hamilton, and Toronto in Canada; Detroit, Oakland, Philadelphia, and more in the USA. Their voices are featured in the bridge; Kristjon encouraged everyone to say a line describing what they were going to do for their dream weekend whether that be “going to the beach” or “holding a seance.” The goal was to make it seem like the listener was dropped into a party of dreamers, eavesdropping on their conversations.

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

I wrote Ready For The Weekend here in Toronto in collaboration with my friend Marcus Manderson aka Da Fingaz in Washington, DC. He had sent me an instrumental titled Ready For The Weekend. I thought, “Hey! Great title!” and ran with it. The lyrics are about having fun and enjoying new experiences. Let your mind go and let the body groove!

By the time, I added my own instrumental parts and had Dan Konopka from OK Go play drums and my friend Kristen Prince play sax and all sorts of other cool people across Canada and the USA contribute backing vocals and spoken bits, I knew we had something fun that would lend itself to an exciting visual treatment.

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

First of all, I make videos for most of my releases and this current cycle of songs has all been animations. Second, I work with Dan Konopka whose mothership band OK Go is (cough cough, ahem) pretty well-known for their videos so there’s a certain level of Quality Control in my brain from the outset!

There are several scenes and each uses a real image from my home (or the single cover for the first scene) as a starting point.

Verse one shows workers at an amusement park beyond happy it’s the weekend. Prechorus one starts with a painting by Canadian artist Arthur Horsfall and takes us into a fantasy in the mountains. The first chorus then starts with a collage I made during the pandemic but with a movement towards Fellini and Italy.

In verse two, we go back to work and this is represented by finance people in New York (nose to the grindstone but with a glass of wine thinking about the weekend). The second prechorus starts with another painting by Arthur Horsfall depicting a lady on the beach and takes us into a surreal beach scene.

One thing I have always liked about Arthur Horsfall’s work is that every painting has one element that is philosophically or perspectively jarring. In this case, the ship in the distance overlaps part of the lady’s leg. When I was little, I used to sit in my Afi’s study and stare at this painting for long periods trying to make sense of it!

That leads us into a chorus starting image of me, my brother, and my dad all dressed up for an epic party on the lake (that also included dozens of women dressed in pink flooding the dock to the sound of the Pink Panther theme over loudspeakers), but I digress…

The breakdown section where we hear all the secret dreams of what people want to do for their weekend starts with a painting of a shoe amidst pebbles painted by my mother Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns (author of The Cuinary Saga of New Iceland and the Mermaids …For Real!! books) and quickly takes us to 1920s Paris (which also ties in with my twin songs Paris of Love and Paris Amoureux). Dreamy and elegant!

And then we bring it back to a real party in New York. Wild! Abstract! Picasso meets Andy Warhol on acid. This final section starts with Club Barella, an image by my father Mark Jenkyns, which includes a diverse crew of characters who are definitely Ready For The Weekend!

3. What was the process of making this video?

As mentioned, I’ve been making animations for this cycle of songs from forthcoming full-length Passing Lanes of Fate. The main AI tool I use I actually learned about from my friend Jessica Magoch in Philly. She’s a frequent collaborator and actually won the PHL Live! Music Award for Jazz just pre-pandemic. Definitely check her out!

The general process is I divide the song into its various musical sections and then find imagery that fits or takes the viewer/listener somewhere new and interesting.

Afterwards, I make various AI animations using personally curated images as starting points for the AI, and then I edit and sequence everything.

Using AI in some ways is like how I work with the musicians. I give them some direction (just like the AI tools via “prompts”) but ultimately what comes back is always surprising and additive (and occasionally addictive)!

That’s part of the magic. I do a lot of work in the film industry in various capacities but one thing that’s true about film and music is you’re looking for that special unexpected something that happens in the work. Could be a casual glance, a lighting effect that’s slightly unexpected, or almost anything.

It’s the pursuit of going somewhere you’ve never been and seeing something you’ve never seen, as we sing in the song, that drives us all to get Ready For The Weekend!