Exclusive Video Premiere: ‘Voyager,’ Fur Trade

ABOVE: FUR TRADE. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRENDAN MEDOWS.

We knew the union of Steve Bays from Hot Hot Heat and Parker Bossley from The Gay Nineties for their latest venture, Fur Trade, would produce a unique sound and aesthetic. Watching the duo’s latest video “Voyager,” which we’re pleased to premiere here, makes viewers feel as though they are back in the ’90s: an era of amateur and experimental editing, VHS, and prolific karaoke. Beginning slowly with a home-movie appeal, the video becomes more intricate—even psychedelic—as the song progresses, interlacing reality with fiction. The video blurs the lines between three awkward businessmen (one of whom happens to be Bossley’s dad) in a karaoke bar, and a kimono-donning Japanese woman lip-synching the song’s lyrics on the karaoke screen. “We were screaming the whole shoot, telling them to look more angry,” Bays recalls.

Bays and Bossley juxtapose electronic synthesizers with live drums recorded using the built-in iPhone voice recorder. The video was filmed using an old-school VHS camera—a fitting medium for a song with the lyrics, “Borrow from the past and steal from the future.”

“Despite the glitches and noise, it’s much more flattering and intriguing than even the most expensive digital cam,” Bays says. The trippy visuals and cast of characters were intentionally used to offset any potential irony resulting from the VHS and karaoke. As Bays says, “In the end, every moment of the video feels either over the top or totally uncomfortable.”

FUR TRADE’S DEBUT ALBUM DON’T GET HEAVY IS OUT NOW. FOR MORE INFO ON THE BAND, VISIT THEIR SOUNDCLOUD