INTERACT

02/17/10

Text: Kee Chang
Photographers: The Malloys

What do Lil Jon, Joe Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal, and RZA have in common? Well, aside from sharing the spotlight at the epicenter of music and film, they were all recruited to make cameo appearances in the new Vampire Weekend music video. The clip is for “Giving Up the Gun,” the second single off the indie rockers’ heavily lauded sophomore studio album, Contra, out now on XL Recordings.

At the helm of this upcoming clip are The Malloys over at HSI Productions. Emmett Malloy, one half of the directing duo, spoke to Anthem via phone about the video and its star-studded cast.

“Giving Up the Gun” is expected to hit the UK airwaves in the coming weeks.

Could you describe the overall concept behind this video?

The concept was simple. It centers on a sort of bizarre-o tennis match. I think the band was looking for different treatments for the song, but sometimes you shop around for ideas and you don’t get the right ones that really resonates. As a result, Erza [Koenig] came up with the idea himself. I know the band through their manager who’s a good friend of mine; he also manages The White Stripes. I shot a documentary for The White Stripes recently, so he was like, “Hey, Vampire Weekend has this idea for their next video. Would you mind looking at it and see if you’d be up to direct it?” I thought the idea was cool; it was a simple one-page idea. I talked to Erza and was able to… with anything, as a director, you need to be able to latch onto things and put your own spin on it. We were able to work together and come up with a very good version of the idea he had originally conceived. It’s a video that I’m super proud of and it’s for a record that I’ve been listening to a lot prior to doing the video. It’s always fun to do those videos where it’s for a record that you feel is the record of the moment.

So, performance footage is interwoven with the tennis match segments?

Yeah, the performance is both woven into the fabric of the match—the contest of the day—and there’s some stuff with them performing in a room just right off to the side. But it all takes place in a very white and pristine world so it doesn’t feel like there are disparate things going on. That’s what I like about it; it’s a very simple and clean video. I also like the sporting element and the cameos. Everything just fell into place. When bands put out records that are really resonating like this one, you’re able to call on people like RZA, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lil Jon, and Joe Jonas. And they all wanted to be in the video. It’s usually tough to get people to come down and join in the chaos known as the music video, but it made it a lot of fun.

Wow, I had no idea those guys were making cameos in this. That’s an impressive line-up!

Yeah, it was cool! The planets just aligned and everybody happened to be around. Most of our phone calls were successful and we were able to grab those guys for the video. I’ve been doing this for a long time and from my own experience, it’s a rarity.

I’m assuming they were already fans of the band then?

I certainly can’t speak for everybody, but Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal were through connections of mine. I was making calls saying, “Hey, I want to get some people to come down and be in this video!” One of my friends was like, “Oh, I was just with Jake and he was listening to the new Vampire Weekend record.” The next thing you know, there he is. I don’t think he even knew what he was doing, but he absolutely slayed it and was a lot of fun to work with. He did a great job in the video and brought a lot to it, which was fantastic.

What else is going on in this video?

We lit shit on fire. We had RZA presiding over the tennis match. Lil Jon came down to give some tennis tips. Jake Gyllenhaal drank himself out of the competition; Joe Jonas tried, but did not succeed. There was a lot of rigorous competition, pyrotechnics, and a little bit of milk to cap it all off.

Was the shoot in Los Angeles?

Yup, we shot it in Hollywood. The band flew out here for the night. They’re in the middle of a major run right now. Those poor guys; it doesn’t seem like they get a minute to themselves. But they all got on a plane on their week off and came over and we knocked this out in one day. And one of their great friends, Jenny, was actually the star of the video, so I think it was a lot of fun for them to do. It was definitely an action-packed day. They were pretty excited to have RZA come down and be in it. I think that’s a pretty big deal for kids from New York.