Premiere: Womb Unveil Video For 'Feeling Like Helium' + Interview

Pōneke's Womb are back in Aotearoa after wrapping up a mid-summer tour of China, travelling alongside fellow sonic adventurer Strange Stains. Organised by Kiwese Touring aka Kristen Ng, who also performed with the band for a couple of shows as Kaishandao, Womb's journey took the sibling trio of Charlotte Forrester, Haz Forrester, and Georgette Brown to ten cities on the Chinese mainland, from Guangzhou's 哑 DUMB Festival, to Beijing and beyond. Reflecting on the sights and sensations they encountered, Womb have unveiled a new video for their song 'Feeling Like Helium' (from 2018's stellar debut album Like Splitting The Head From The Body), morphing together on-the-road footage, live shows and late night antics into an alchemical audio-visual meditation on the band's touring life.

We're stoked to premiere the evocative clip, filmed by Laura Duffy, Christopher Ulutupu, Kristen Ng, Cooki Stains, Womb, 9Shang, 阿佚 and HavocTang, and edited by A Hum of Voices (the solo project of Haz Forrester). Experience 'Feeling Like Helium' here and scroll downwards to read Chris Cudby's e-interview with Charlotte Forrester about the video...

Chris Cudby: Whereabouts in China did you tour with Strange Stains?

Charlotte Forrester: We were super lucky to travel all over mainland China with Strange Stains. A series of overnight trains and flights took us from Guangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north, with countless beautiful and sprawling cities in between.

The tour organiser Kristen Ng / Kaishandao was also playing and travelling with you?

I met Kristen at a festival in Aotearoa a few years back. Then I think Womb got in touch with her touring and management platform, Kiwese, looking into the possibility of us going to China. Things went from there, really, with Kristen being the best tour manager in the world, steadily working out the route we would take, the venues we'd play at, the bands we'd play with. Kristen also makes music as Kaishandao. She didn't play with us the whole tour, as she was too busy being our mum haha, but she did join us for two really special shows in her home of Chengdu.

Your video for 'Feeling Like Helium' conveys the whirlwind sensations of touring - are there any memories which particularly stand out for you from the tour? Any surprises you encountered on your journey?

We'd never really been on tour before, and as soon as it began we all fell in love with tour life. It is a really strange space to inhabit — it feels completely detached from real life, and all the days kind of mutate into this dream-like state. We had an amazing team of people with us — Kristen ka Kiwese, Cooki aka Strange Stains, Laura Duffy aka VJ aka Georgie's (drums) girlfriend, and Christopher Ulutupu aka videographer aka Haz's (synth) boyfriend. Together we found ourselves in many magical and hilarious situations — watching the sun rise at a techno party on the 54th floor of an office building, missing a sixteen hour train and sleeping on the airport floor, doing karaoke in the most luxurious KTV booth of all time, meeting so many amazing people and then heading to the next city the next morning. There were definitely some MAJOR plot-twists, and just over half way through the tour, things started to unravel... but that's a story for another time.

Did your experiences in China impact on what you'd like to do next with Womb?

The tour has changed things in certain aspects. I think it made us all realise how powerful music really can be — connecting with people where there are sometimes language barriers, sometimes cultural differences. We found this when watching the supporting bands, as well as in the connections we felt with the audience: music creates a sort of instantaneous experience that cuts right through, goes straight to the body and to the heart. I think we've just realised how this makes us want to keep going, keep making music, keep touring.

'Like Splitting The Head From The Body' is out now via Arcade Recordings & Sonorous Circle. Arcade Recordings are currently raising funds towards future releases and further recording equipment, for more info and to show your support head over here.