Victoria+Jean

The lyric, “You’ve been living on sweet cocaine,” rides above thumping percussion, while avant-garde sounds and instrumentation merge together into a cohesive, electro-punk track. While Victoria+Jean’s “Firecracker” might summon imagery of dingy dive bars and drug binges, the music video focuses more on marbles, which kids used to play with for fun before the invention of the iPad.

Director Christopher Thockler used roughly 550 marbles to make the video. By rolling them around, creating geometric shapes and paths, blasting lights through their glassy bodies, and even shaving some of them down into powder, Thockler takes an everyday object and uses it to summon dazzling colors, fervent energy, and explosions of light.

About the song, the duo says, “When we first started to write firecracker, it started like an old blues song, like the ones where you could taste the whiskey from the singer’s breath…but the more we worked on it, the more it started to get electric, having a beat that just wouldn’t stop thumping.” -

Creepy cloth masks, a conjured quasi-Jesus, taxidermied animals that aren’t quite as dead as they appear to be… Swedish-Belgian duo Victoria+Jean go all out weird in their video for “Holly.”

Shot on 16mm by director duo Spike and Jones a.k.a. Paul Normann and Sebastien Alouf (who cut their teeth shooting for Coppola), the film has a found footage quality to it that makes the imagery all the more creepy. Apparently the pair were listening to a lot of Malian music and Nigerian rock from the 60s and 70s which, through their filter has the resulted in a crazed kind of experi-pop—like PJ Harvey reworking the "Atlas" by Battles.

Victoria had this to say about the track’s inspiration: “The song is about a friend that has problems facing reality. She changes her mind constantly, changes jobs all the time and just doesn't know what to do with her life. Her dad is an old alcoholic and she can't stand him, but whenever she's in money trouble she calls out to him. Of course, with all his regrets of not being the father he should have been, he gives her anything she wants and asks for. We love her with her flaws and her qualities, but she just isn't conscious of her actions, or the value of money.”

Somehow it feels like we’ve all had a friend like this.

Special shouts out to Kazakhstani actress, Nina Sever, who embodies the titular character—a whirling dervish flame-haired babe.

Victoria+Jean's EP, V+J, is out now.

Website: http://victoriaplusjean.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoriaplus...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicplusjean
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/victoriaplusjean -

This one's for the pyros. Victoria+Jean are gearing up to release their V+J EP next month, and we're excited to premiere their fiery new video for "Why Won't You." The European cinematic pop duo take burning an ex's photo to the next level, by bringing it to life (but not in a morbid way, promise). Watch the Christophe Thockler-directed clip above.

V+J is slated for a December 1 release and is the follow-up to the band's debut full-length, Divine Love. -

To create Why Won’t You, the new pyrotechnic music video for the Europe-born two-piece Victoria+Jean, videographer and graphic designer Christophe Thockler took 8,500 photos and set 400 of them ablaze, resulting in a red-hot stop-motion animation. Explains Thockler on his website, Victoria's fiery vocals combined with Jean's growling guitar provided “the perfect playground for me to play with rhythm, stop-motion, fast paced sequences, and of course, onirism and symbolism," and also gave him the excuse to mess around with 10 liters of gasoline and 1 kg of explosive powder.

Previously, Thockler's Vimeo Staff-Picked Cusp required that the artist melt 40 blocks of ice down using with 25 liters of water—the result was 5.75 minutes of chilling visuals. This time around, however, Thockler turns up the heat, creating visions of “sparkles, flames, smokes, and explosions” that we're getting warm just watching. -

“A soap opera from another dimension” is how filmmaker Anita Fontaine describes her short tableau for Swedish-Belgian avant-pop duo Victoria+Jean’s latest release, “Divine Love”. It follows the romantic conquests of a budgie called Smokey and its owner Lulu, played by The Tudors actor Annabelle Wallis. “I was thinking about science fiction films from the 70s and dating shows from the 80s: they both have these kind of fake sets that look like they are falling apart,” says the LA-based creative of the film’s aesthetic. The paean to lovelorn, soul-cracked desperation is taken from the group’s forthcoming debut album: “Everyone deals with love’s intensity in their own way—seeing Smokey vulnerable in her defeat reflects how slavish we are to our emotions,” they say. Fontaine previously formed half of interactive arts duo Champagne Valentine with Geoffrey Lillemon, creating visuals for the likes of Versace, Edun and Tate Modern, and also designed the the band’s logo and album sleeve. “I wanted to shoot a kind of anti-suicide film on top of the Golden Gate Bridge for it, but over time the idea sounded unbearably cheesy,” she says “Now, it simply celebrates the oddness of love.”

Divine Love is out now. -

It’s rare to come across a band that offers something distinct, fresh and buzzing at the same time, and to not lose that enthusiasm song after song. Victoria+Jean, the exciting duo from Stockholm offer up tightly arranged avant-pop and uptempo beats for even the greyest of days to become lively, fitting somewhere between The Kills and Lower Dens.

For their two latest videos, the diabolical duo teamed with one of PJ Harvey’s close friends and vision-producer, video director Maria Mochnacz, who has been working with bands and musicians since 1991. Granting Mochnacz full creative control for both tracks’ videos ‘Firecracker‘ and ‘Pull The Trigger‘ from their album debut Divine Love, they came to create two visual masterpieces.

V+J met in Brussels after Victoria embraced her inner travel bug. It was there she met Jean, an uncommonly talented musician and avid globetrotter and where they both are grounded now, working on their divine love for music together.

Having worked with some of the best sound engineers going:, from John Parish (PJ Harvey) to Christoffer Berg (Depeche Mode, The Knife, Fever Ray), the full-length is a very special work of art, ensuring love is divine.

Ahead of their EU and UK tour and release of Divine Love, below we speak to the terrific trio and premiere both videos in an exclusive double-whammy. Hold tight.

Konbini: How did you meet?

Victoria: Like in a novel, I saw Jean smile at me with his big white teeth while he was playing, he looked at me, and I melted. When I finally left the place after his concert he found me.

Maria: I met V+J when my dear friend John Parish told me at Christmas time 2013 that a band he worked with were trying to get hold of me. So when Victoria+Jean sent the album through, they were asking video makers/artists to make videos for all of the songs on their album and to chose whichever songs I liked and to do whatever I wanted.

K: What was it like working on the videos all together?

V+J: It was magical, impressive, intense and smooth. You try to understand [Maria], to dig in. But just to look at her work is watching time print in all these moments. And through her eyes, her vision and sensitivity, we made something.

Through her eyes, her vision and sensitivity, we made something



Maria has these ravishing obsessions. When you’re with her it’s not about wanting to put down something logical with the object she finds, but to use them as if they were going to be new objects to be reconstructed, to use them in totally different ways.

K: Your album is called ‘Divine Love’ and you say love is divine: what are the most divine things to you?

V+J: Freedom, love, eternity and immortality. We say that love is a point of balance that brings out the divine essences. For example, if you listen to a friend who is in misery, if you lend an attentive ear to show him by doing that you’re loving him, you’re making a huge mistake. You are not helping, and you are showing him your love. But instead of that you are burying him even more in to his problem. If you love him, then shake him, throw him under a cold shower. Take him to see something else. Tell him the truth.
That is love, it’s to show to people to be free and to not weep over their limits. Well we’ll have to say that this album is the exact reflection of what is said up below, of two people who choose not to weep over their limits, and who told themselves the truth. Music is love, and so, love is divine.

K: Maria, how did you come to establish your lo-fi aesthetic?

Maria: Hmm, not sure how to answer this! I’m a luddite! I’ve always loved home made, punk rock style. I haven’t embraced the digital era! But who knows maybe I will surprise myself and do so!

K: What is the Swedish music scene like for someone who knows it well?

V+J: We can only realise, and admit that the Swedish musical scene has been invigorating and buzzing these last 10 years, and Swedish bands are good at keeping up on what is cool and what is not (to not say the word hype).
Artists like Lykke Li, The Knife, Fever Ray, Peter Bjorn and John, whom are really big in the Swedish indie scene and mainstream, are more then just a band but nearly are looked upon like a brand. They represent Sweden… We’ll admit that it’s a very square society, where everything has its place and stays in its place, and in the end it pushes them to be creative and expressive.

Sweden has always felt, historically, the impression of being small next to other countries. They love trends and they are very good at adapting, to develop something which we adhere. It’s very English. Sweden also works a bit like England, with very hyped things and the week after, they’ve moved on to something new. - Lydia Morrish

Live session - SABAM For Culture, proud sponsor of Francofolies de Spa

http://www.victoriaplusjean.com/ -

Victoria+Jean's song Big Billie has been chosen for The Warner Bros NEW hit series called GOTHAM fro Season 1/Episode 19 "Beasts of Prey". -

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/new-music/discovery/victoria-jean-harligt-sverige -

http://louderthanwar.com/victoria-and-jean-manchester-indie-week-live-review/ - John Robb For Louder Than War