TENDER - Erode

“When I first heard ‘Erode’, it struck me as pure sex. The slow sonic pulses, climaxing in quicker, intense sections put an image of a black tar-like liquid in my head. Paralleling the actions of intimacy, it creates violent waves at heightened moments and falls back to a calm ripple during the moments of tenderness.

With each subsequent listen, the vulnerability of the lyrics became clear. This manifested itself in the aesthetic, by which we deliberately lit the cast towards the blue end of the spectrum. This enabled us to bring out blemishes which are deep beneath the skin and invisible to the naked eye, peeling back the layers between the lovers.

Tender portray an eerily intimate isolation in ‘Erode’. It’s an isolation not between lovers, but between them and civilisation. The natural and simplistic video needed some kind of big reveal, and what better way than to link that isolation to the metaphorical sex? During the last seconds of the song, I visualised a pull-back showing the two afloat on a vast ocean of their own sex (black liquid), far away from the rest of the world."

-Jack A. Bowden

Director: Jack A Bowden
Producer: Ailsa Vanessa Tapping
Cast: Isaac Plowright & Anna Tatton
Production Company: Nonsense & Co.
Production Assistant: Femi Anderson
1st AD: Bryony James
Director of Photography: Nick Morris
1st AC: Gary Long
2nd AC: Matt Farrant
Grip: Dave Bradshaw
Gaffer: Chris Broomfield
Spark: Kana Hirari
Spark: Tina Georgieva
Art Department: Ash Halliburton
Art Assist.: Meg Nixon

VFX: Smoke and Mirrors
Grade: Jonny Tully @ Smoke & Mirrors

Special Thanks: George Rumsay & Camille Brayer @ Panavision.