From the album 'Nothing as the Ideal,' available now: http://newwst.com/atwnatiID
Written/Directed by Robby Staebler and Drea de Matteo
Filmed by Robby Staebler, Ginger Gonzales, Alabama Jennings
Edited and Colored by Robby Staebler
Film Processing/ scanning by Spectra Film Lab
SUBSCRIBE to our channel for exclusive videos, tour updates, merch sales and more!
About a year ago, Nashville-founded heavy-psych champs All Them Witches did something a little unusual for a group known for extended explorations: They released a standalone single. The track “1x1” did get a substantial film treatment, however, in a video directed by drummer Robby Staebler. The piece stars Staebler’s partner, actress Drea de Matteo (who you’ll know from The Sopranos), as the reincarnation of Mother Earth.
As Staebler told contributor Charlie Zaillian a few weeks back, the band got together early this year to record their sixth LP Nothing as the Ideal at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios — specifically Studio 2, where Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was recorded. Just before COVID-19 began to shut down the world, the three bandmates returned to the U.S. and went to their separate home cities. Staebler and de Matteo, who live in Los Angeles, dove into the project of creating a music video for the Nothing track “Rats in Ruin.” As Staebler explained to Brooklyn Vegan when the video premiered, the nine-and-a-half-minute piece, which the couple wrote and filmed together, is a follow-up to “1x1.”
“In 'Rats,’ we introduce the images of mankind and the future,” Staebler writes. “I am mankind, Drea’s son Blackjack is our creation. … As mankind turns his back on his creation, he looks outwards for something new, leaving the work at hand unfinished and dismissed. … The family is a microcosm for our world and society. Our root systems are being torn from the ground and sold back to us as mulch. We continue to dismantle nature to feed our progression towards extinction. Instead of cultivating the earth and ourselves through love and balance we neglect the seeds sown and ignite our world. Will we keep burning this to the ground? No air, no life. No love, no life. When the dust settles what will be left?”
The video is brimming with slow dissolves, blending images of flowers, mushroom clouds and lab rats into the narrative of the three characters, all shot on 16mm film. The visuals mirror the melancholy of the long and winding song, following its journey into a bombastic instrumental crescendo that David Gilmour could be proud of. Check it out above and keep an eye on All Them Witches’ website, Instagram, Bandcamp and Facebook for more updates.
