As we approach the holidays and the ensuing new year, Mode Moderne lets the spirit of Halloween carry on forward from the crypt. Giving us the Stateside debut of their video for "She, Untamed"; frontman Phillip Intilé paints his face a lighter shade of pale for a performance piece put to fuzzy analogue visuals.
Stories of femme fatales are regaled in sordid tales of "acting cute in a stupid way." Looking like a character leftover from Dia de los Muertos, Phillip drops the lasting memorable lines of aberrated proverbs like "cherish the night and abandon the day" and "to commit a crime to fulfill a need." Intilé commands a morality play through the make up, and European television styled performance that depicts the story, adventures, and misadventures of an untamed debutante Through the lens that rekindles the candles of industrial, goth, post-wave-no-wave, post-punk, no-punk and what have you; the Vancouver group presents themselves in a gothic glory that remakes modern favorite moments from the modernist ethic that lives on in the millennial/post-millennial free play of images and familiar sounds.
Phillip talked with us a for a bit about the heavy nature and vintage style of the "She, Untamed" video and the delights and occultic charm of their upcoming album, Occult Delight.
"Cherishing the night and abandoning the day", what were the inspirations for this vignette of embracing the night and forsaking the day?
The song is a call for the re-education of men through violence. Here in our hometown of Vancouver we are seeing a shocking rise in the amount of sexual assaults and violence against women, and of course this violence is not exclusive to Vancouver. I would love to see young women target men who are known degenerates or men who dress and act a certain way. Target them with physical violence, front page violence, frequently. I have a vision of a man getting dressed for a night out and having to second guess the bejewelled t-shirt he's wearing because he doesn't want to become a target, the same way that young women are told to watch what they wear. Rather than telling women what they can wear we should be telling men to evolve. History has proven that violence is a justifiable means, let's humiliate the oppressor! Cherish the night!
With goth-y face paints and live analogue video, how did you all go about the visual adaptation?
The cat who made our record, Joshua Stevenson, picked up an original analogue video synth at a garage sale and we had to use it. It's great, we love it. It was Daniel Rincon's [the director[ idea to use face paint and for me to use a headset microphone. Sean wore a dress. We ate snacks.
Should we expect Halloween in January?
Yes, absolutely! Ghosts, bats, much howling and wailing. Wizards. No, excuse me, no wizards but lots of spooks and ghouls. Some vampire bites, some lamenting, no baying.
Mode Moderne's Occult Delight will be available January 21 from Light Organ Records.
