Last year gothic doom quartet Cold in Berlin revealed the video for their hypnotic single The Power, a taste of their latest album Rituals of Surrender. Intrigued to find out more, we caught up with the band to talk about the single and video themes, stories from behind the scenes and more.
Can you give us your quick elevator pitch on this track? Why does this one standout for you as a band?
The Power. It’s Swans meets Sabbath. A collision of our two favourite bands. A grinding industrial verse and a triumphant finale.
How did you tackle the writing process for the song? Was there anything unique about this track compared to your usual/previous approach?
Like every track on our fourth album Rituals of Surrender, The Power went through a long gestation and then a hard left turn after a demo session. Everybody brought something unique to this track, like Maya’s double vocal ending.
Can you tell us how the song’s theme came about?
It’s a creation myth. You’re hearing the story of the evolution of woman. I took some inspiration from the writer Doris Lessing. Her novel The Cleft is about prehistoric societies and how little has changed for the sexes since then.
Tell us about the video, do the themes of the single transfer to the video?
I hope so. We tried to communicate themes of birth, life and death, using the video location’s indoor and outdoor spaces. The lyrics include lots of ‘big imagery’ typically associated with these themes. It was a challenge replicating these on a modest budget, which is probably where our use of projection screen comes in. With these we could incorporate some spectacular scenes and weave them around the narrative and the band.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories from the video shoot?
It was an 18 hour day for Maya and her performance was so central to producing a strong video. The production team were incredible, coming up with fixes and work-arounds on the spot. Check out the behind the scenes photos HERE.
Anything else you’d like to add for our readers?
Look out for a short film length version both of The Power and Dark Days complete with extra audio-visual madness!
Cold in Berlin‘s latest album Rituals of Surrender is out now via New Heavy Sounds, available to purchase HERE.
