Video: Invisible Threads - Limerick (UTR Premiere)

Noise-rock outfit Invisible Threads is unveiling the video for 'Limerick', the closing song from their brand new album Oxide which is out today via Bandcamp. The DIY clip was created by band frontman Sam Moore, who says it was inspired by a "vivid and frightening dream" he had, and therefore it captures an unsettling sense of disorientation and confusion that perfectly fits the shredding single. Check out the clip and then read our interview with Sam below... 

Hey Sam! Can you tell us a little bit about who made the video and the concept behind it?

I made the video myself. The idea originally came from a vivid and frightening dream I had, which had a lot of seemingly disconnected elements that were some how linked as sections of an imagined surrealist TV show.

How does the clip tie in with the song, if at all?

The song existed first and I guess ended up being a vehicle for some of these visual ideas I had. In terms of connections it had some imagery that connected with themes of the song and they both involve power shifts.

Since forming circa 2014 as a duo, you’ve expanded into a four-piece, with you remaining at the core of the evolution. How has that affected your sound and song writing?

Well, we started as a recording project in which I played everything except drums. So I was already planning it on being a more layered band. Melissa West was my flatmate at that time and she offered to fill out that side. We liked the results and thought it would be worth doing some gigs so we tried out a few people we knew to play some of the parts. It ended being hard to co-ordinate that initially so we settled on being a two-piece but finding other ways to fill out the other parts which resulted in some interesting setups. One of these involved triggering synths off my guitar, that worked well live but was unpredictable and didn't translate so well to recording. Then I ended up triggering synth loops with my feet. Eventually someone said it looked stressful (and it was) so we started considering getting new members again. For me I guess it was a bit of a case of the grass been greener and noticing bass lines more in songs and how important they were. Bands like Wipers and Wire etc. Dane Taylor happened to come around to where we practiced on an unrelated matter and said he'd be keen to have a go at playing bass with us. He gelled really well straight away so we've kept going with him. Brent Bidlake happened to be a synth enthusiast and said he'd be interested in trying out some of his analogue modular synths on our songs and that's how it fell into place really. So a more condensed way of saying this is the band ended up being what we wanted initially but just took a really long time to get there. It's meant more layers of counterpoint and sound/noise with more input overall. Melissa West has since left to focus on photography and Jana Winter has joined on drums. Christan Pianta (singer of Markdown) is playing drums with us in the South Island.

This upcoming album will be your first release via Melted Ice Cream, how did you hook up with them?

Joe got in touch around the time we released Machine Is Dead last year. He said he liked our songs and asked if we'd be interested in coming down to Christchurch for a show. I knew he was one of the people running Melted Ice Cream so I offered to send him our unreleased album to listen to. A few months later he said MIC would be keen to release it. I'm pleased they asked because they're all in bands (Salad boys, Dance Asthmatics, etc) I like as well and I had actually been enjoying they're releases previous to him getting in touch.

Once the record is out what’s on the cards for Invisible Threads?

We're kicking off our tour this Saturday night at the Darkroom in Christchurch, then onto Dunedin, Wellington and ending at Golden Dawn in Auckland. Then we'll be working on another album and maybe heading over to Australia for some shows. We've wanted to go over for a while and it has started to seem more feasible now.

You can stream the whole album now over here at the Melted Ice Cream Bandcamp page.


Invisible Threads are hitting the road to celebrate the release of Oxide, see below for dates and details.