Videominne från Paola Ivana Suhonen

Foto: Paula Ivana Suhonen 

Det finska bandet New Silver Girl är tillbaka med nya singeln Loud Love. Albumet Wild Carnation äntrar världen 28 februari och jag tror att det kommer bli ett av årets album. Jag gillar retrokänslan samtidigt som bandet verkligen sticker ut, både i sitt avståndstagande till sociala medier samt i deras uttryck. Det är både bomull och spik på samma gång. Varmt men med mycket attityd. Till låten kommer även en musikvideo, signerad Paula Ivana Suhonen och dagen till ära så berättar hon hur hon visualiserar New Silver Girl, hur hon tänkt med sina musikvideos som doftar min storfavorit David Lynch, som tragiskt nog gick bort på min födelsedag. Videon till Loud Love är fantastisk och bär en vacker kostym och jag känner, när jag ser videon, att jag vill klä många av mina favoritlåtar i Paulas kläder. 

I have always been a film lover girl. Analog world is the most beautiful thing I know. My first memories of film are related to childhood, where the Scandinavian lifestyle included endless summer road trips, bright orange-blue Tena capri tents, paper maps, gas station stops with orange lemonade and sandwiches and crummy motels with sparkling neon signs. In this world, film cameras hummed, my father's Nikon R-10. These sun-gilded 8mm films were then viewed on darkening autumn evenings, when the screen and the rolling projector were brought out. The sounds, the visuals, the overall atmosphere were pure magic. There was this extended excitement associated with developing the film, when you only saw the result of the filmed material when it arrived from the laboratory. 

These were the moments when my great love for film was born. The color world of the films is also completely inimitable, its analog graininess, the beauty of randomness and the wonderful painterly drawing of vintage lenses. For me, shooting on film is art at its best. 

New Silver Girl's music struck me immediately. There is something rare sensual, authentic rock and roll, raw power, a sense of danger, strong aesthetics and rock star romance in it. Above all, their musical aesthetics are completely timeless and at the same time embracing all eras. At the same time, timeless and current. 

I wanted to start building the music videos for their new album into a triptych of three entities. In Blue Room, film played an absolutely key role. I wanted to go to the origins of the song's story. That’s why it’s shot in the Joshua Tree desert in California, I wanted to stay in the same motel room, the Joshua Tree Inn, room number 8, where the legendary rock icon Gram Parsons died in 1973. According to legend, this room is completely unrenovated, I got to sleep in the same bed with Gram. The rock formation seen in the film is the same one, Cap Rock, where his then-manager Phil Kaufman performed the partial cremation of Parsons' body. Thus, some of Parsons' earthly remains have been scattered to the desert wind as he wished to be done. The song Blue Room tells about this legend. At night, the room was haunted, a desert coyote was banging on the front door, big black, handsome ravens were circling everywhere. The video was shot on 8mm and 16mm film. 

In the following films (Loud Love and Hurricane) you will see the atmosphere of David Lynch, whom I greatly admire. At this moment, he is more relevant than ever. I have always loved his aesthetics and storytelling. Warm absurd humor, highly stylized characters, mixing dark and beautiful landscapes. I moved to Hollywood in 2010, only to follow in his footsteps and studied at the legendary AFI film school, of which I am now an alumni, like David Lynch. My greatest honor, my beautiful memory, was also when I graduated from AFI, the diploma was presented to me that year by the maestro himself, David Lynch. 

In the second video (Loud Love) for New Silver Girl, we invited the most interesting characters, friends, family, ex lovers, and strangers to our Ivana Helsinki House (Very ”Lynchian” architecture from 1970's!). We had a wonderful one-night party and shot the video just in one takes. 

In the last video (Hurricane) we went with Olli (the front man of New Silver Girl) to my family's summer cottage, deserted in winter. The road leading to the cottage has always seemed scary and threatening to me. Last year, a murder occurred there that shocked the whole of Finland. This same dark cot- tage road plays the main role, inspired by David Lynch's Lost Highway. 

There's nothing better than old, story-filled, aesthetic music videos, New Silver Girl's amazing, powerful, authentic and story-filled rock and roll music. They are the very best that Finland has to offer musically at the moment. Enjoy and fall in love. 

/ Paola Ivana Suhonen

Lyssna på Loud Love här nedan och kolla in videon, regisserad av Paula!