“When we were asked who, in an ideal world, we would like to make a video with,” say Evangeline Ling and Davis Wrench of weirdo dance-inducing electronic project audiobooks, “at the very top of our list was Alasdair McLellan.” The 21-year-old London art student and her Welsh producer bandmate didn’t think they actually had any chance of working with the longtime i-D photographer, so were “delightedly shocked” when it turned out he was, in fact, well up for collaborating.
“I really liked the song, and the word ‘bubblebath’ in the title,” says Alasdair of Friends in the Bubblebath, a single from audiobooks’s wonderfully-named debut album Now! (in a minute). “It reminded me of growing up in suburbia, so I filmed the video around my hometown and surrounding areas of Doncaster, Barnsley and Sheffield. I wanted to make the video like one of those really dramatic kitchen sink dramas from the 60s.”
And so, he did! With a backdrop of familiar overpasses, old mining landscapes, forgotten church ruins, local pubs and sleepy cul-de-sacs, everybody sets about snogging everybody else. “ It’s not a big deal, I just want to laugh with you,” Evangeline attempts to convince us on the hook. “It’s not a big deal, I just want to walk with you / I don’t want to sleep with you, I just want to be with you… in a bubblebath.” As friends obviously, nothing sexy. The video — dancing between colour and black and white — is beautiful and alive with the confusion, pleasure and pain of teenage years.
“It was such a pleasure to work with Alasdair, and a great feeling to know we could have complete trust in his aesthetic judgement,” audiobooks add. “The entire crew and cast were wonderful to work with and fun to hang out with in beautiful Doncaster and Sheffield.” So what are you waiting for? Climb in, the water’s fine!
audiobooks are off on a UK tour this March. Attendance, though not mandatory, is highly recommended. Get your tickets here .