Mesmeriser – Trigger

The band’s guitarist/vocalist Myles Fischer explains the way the songs concept which delves into sexual assault and perpetrators of such came about: “It really just started with the line ‘Well, he’s up and he’s out’. That kind of line can go anywhere; perhaps the beginning of someone’s day, but in this case I wanted it to be the end of someone’s night. When you start there, your mind wanders to what a line like that might mean in that context. I think after that you’re navigating into some extremely heavy territory and attempting to put yourself into a very wicked mindset. It was also a situation where we didn’t want to write a song just about how perpetrators influence and connections allow them to get away with these crimes, but how the perpetrators and the victims are treated after such an event.”

”The second verse attempts to consolidate the doubt thrown at victims, as well as the doubts victims place upon themselves after such an event. ‘what were you wearing, what were you drinking, did you have a little something to lose? … How will I explain myself? I gotta say’. The final chorus laments that there often isn’t sufficient punishment for these crimes and how the influence and connections of such criminals has more weight than the actions of the crime, ‘Word’s come down, didn’t ya hear that money saved a life?’. In terms of marrying the music and lyrics, I think the dirty rock vibe of the instruments accentuates the depravity we were looking to explore in the track.”

Mesmeriser – Trigger

There is absolutely a strong connection between the music and lyrics of the song, to a point where each listen of the song engages a different part of your enjoyment as the lyrics bring a new depth to the music that isn’t immediately clear. The one thing that doesn’t marry up however is the song’s video, which depicts the band and a couple of friends engaged in a comical high stakes poker game in which they are all trying to grift each other.

The dichotomy between the tone of the video and the lyrics is quite pronounced, and according to the band, an intentional move given the subject matter of the song being extremely difficult to represent with poise and sensitivity, especially when it came to the experiences of victims: “I think it would’ve been impossible to do the lyrics justice in a film clip and it would almost certainly come off as disingenuous if we had tried. We like making funny, silly video clips, so we went for something light-hearted and had a ball. Thankfully our friend and all-round great filmmaker Lewis Clark was available to help us make the clip and we couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out. We had lots of laughs filming the clip, and I think it translates well in the final product.”

Mesmeriser – Trigger

The fun the boys had while making this video is certainly apparent to the viewer and perhaps the clip’s greatest strength. This palpable enjoyment makes for a most infectious experience, especially through the different characters the band members embody. Director Lewis Clark remembers the conceptualisation part of the process fondly: “Building these characters with the boys came together very naturally – it became obvious early that the more absurd they were, the better. Giving it that push allowed us to easily dissect what was most fun about each character, and run with that. From James Bond to Rounders, we wanted to recreate those ‘larger than life’ poker dogs you might find at the table, all bringing something different but equally smug and cheeky. This approach, mixed in with the boys themselves, gave us a lot of laughs bringing these characters to life.”

Mesmeriser – Trigger

With so many classic poker game scenes to draw on for inspiration, Lewis Clark has called on many tropes and approaches made famous through film history to bring such energy and even suspense to this totally comical, completely made up, high stakes show down. Clark explains: “The poker table is full of movement, colour, and facial expressions which makes shooting a really enjoyable process, and one you can get creative with. Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a great example of this which was definitely a great influence for us. Punching in really tight on eyes, cards, and hands I think add to both the fun and the suspense of it all. The boys trying to out-cheat each other in such blatantly obvious ways also made way for some fun shot selection – we really had ball putting it all together.”

Here is the official video for ‘Trigger‘