Playlist: Richard Grewe

Richard Grewe has been head of  new business and music videos at Colonel Blimp for the last year. During his time in the role he has worked on promos for a wide range of artists including The Weeknd [bottom], Joe Goddard, Temples, Palace, Crystal Fighters and Hinds.

What’s the best music video you’ve seen recently and why? 

Jil All Your Words [dir. Anton Tammi]. It’s a trip. Aesthetically it’s amazing throughout. Could be accused of being a bit ‘style over substance’ but when it looks as good as it does I can deal with that.   

What’s the first music video you remember being impressed by? 

I don’t know if this really counts; Disney’s Fantasia.

And what’s your all-time favourite music video?

I can’t give one but these are the few I will always go back to:

Justice:  Stress [dir. Romain Gavras]

Björk: It’s All So Quiet [dir.Spike Jonze]

The Knife: Pass This On [dir. Johan Renck]

Baauer: Gogo [dir. Thomas Rhazi]

The Blaze: Virile [dir. The Blaze & Jonathan Alric]

What other directors/artists do you look to for inspirational?

Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch, Spike Jonze, Romain Gavras, Abel Ferrera, Larry Clark, Harmony Korine, Dash Snow, David Bowie, Björk, Arca, Cocteau Twins, Blur, Ghostface Killah [below].

What are you listening to at the moment?

Arca, DJ Rashad, Super Cat, Abra and Blur are the last five artists played on my Spotify.

What’s your favourite bit of tech, whether for professional or personal use? 

My alarm clock.

What artist(s) would you most like to work with and why? 

David Bowie because he was a god among men. 

How do you feel the promo industry has changed since you started in it?

I’m pretty fresh to the game but I heard that record labels used to have money for music videos.

Music videos have had a resurgence of late; where do you see the industry being in five years’ time? 

I feel like there are two camps in music videos at the minute. 

There’s those driven by the Marketing team which have quite a restricted brief and generally have less scope to really make something new and different. 

Then there are those where the artist and directors come together without creative restraints to make something special. If you look at the videos that actually make waves, such as the Blaze - Territory taking the Craft Grand Prix at Cannes, there was no label involvement there, and the director was the actual artist. 

That video is beautiful because it cut out the marketing bullshit, its very hard in the current environment to make something like that without special connection between artist and director.

But people are still really excited about a good music video. It can still fuel creativity in advertising and film and we just have to find different ways to make the really special ones. I think in the next few years labels will start to appreciate the craft of a good video again and put more money into them whether that is from the label and artist themselves or outsourced from Apple or somewhere. There is so much opportunity to reach people through music video for a song or for an album as a whole.

I’m hoping it will begin to be taken seriously again and adapt to be something smarter and more effective. Something which is always down to allowing creativity to shine.

Something about me that no one would know: 

I have a pet tortoise.