Vuurwerk – G.R.I.P.
Vuurwerk – G.R.I.P. (2015)
Directed by: Tobi Jonson
Last month saw the release of VUURWERK’s ‘G.R.I.P’ EP, to accompany it the band recorded an extended version of the title track and their friend and fellow Run Tell Secrecy member Tobi Jonson filmed a very special video for it.
Sadly shortly after filming took place one of the actors involved, Sander Vangansbeke, passed away and as both the song and video are focussed on death and coming to terms with grief there has been much debate about whether to shelve it entirely.
Having talked amongst the collective and with the families involved though the decision was finally made to go ahead with publishing the video and letting it stand as a tribute to Sander and to the collective of friends, artists, musicians, film makers and more that VUURWERK are part of.
Below you’ll find some words from the band explaining the video.
Thanks, J.
“Those of you that have been following us since the very beginning (thankyou4that) will know that what we do goes far beyond just the three members of VUURWERK. Our roots lie in a DIY collective of likeminded people called Run Tell Secrecy. We like to be in control. We crave independence. We’re neurotics that don’t sleep. We don’t commit ourselves to existing structures without asking for complete carte blanche and creative freedom and our collective gives us the strength and backing to do all this.
G.R.I.P. is the result of this friendship-family-collective. Firstly as a song and now as a very special short film. We first met Max Colombie (here singing under the name Climb X) in Brussels back in 2013, immediately we felt a shared connection and that we were driven by the same creative spark. We soon found ourselves in the studio with Max where we recorded a vast amount of music together that we would later turn into songs, G.R.I.P. (along with Wakening, released earlier in 2015) was one of them.
Soon after we met Max he introduced us to a a good friend of his, cinematographer and director Tobi Jonson, and like that our collective grew and became even stronger. Tobi heard G.R.I.P. in one of its earliest production stages and straight away he told us that he had an idea to make this transcendental, otherworldy and alienating video for it. When you’re part of a creative project with like-minded people a lot of good things happen.
Sadly, bad things happen too.
Shortly after the video was shot, S., one of the main actors who starred in it passed away. When you’re part of a collective that’s so deeply rooted in friendship these things hurt. They hurt a lot. At first we thought about not releasing the video. With the script and indeed the entire imagery in the video all about transcendence and death, it felt too raw. But we talked, amongst ourselves, with the families involved and we came to realise that more than anything this film is a perfect document and summary of what we do and what we stand for as a band and as a collective.
There’s only one version, this version, the extended version. It wouldn’t make sense cutting it up. We hope you feel the same way as we do.
We dedicate G.R.I.P. in its entirety to S., and his loved ones” – VUURWERK, June 2015.
