NONEXISTER SHARE VIDEO FOR THIRD SINGLE “HOW DO YOU DARE” — WATCH
Zürich-based NONEXISTER release their new single “How Do You Dare” today.
Watch the video HERE.
“How Do You Dare” is the third single of the Swiss industrial rock/metal band. In March, the very first single “Your Pain Up My Veins“ with a spectacularly dark video starring actress Carol Schuler was released. In June, the second single, “Drowning In the Void,” followed, with a cinematic and highly sophisticated video.
Producer and multi-instrumentalist Marco Neeser says of the third single, “‘How Do You Dare’ is a sonic whirlwind of raw power and intensity. When I started producing it, I initially created a driving bass line which I combined with dark ambient noises and heavy guitar riffs. Then Nik came in with his mesmerizing vocal lines. I layered and interwove them over and over until it became an actual wall of sound with an almost gospel-esque intensity, engulfing you in a sonic maelstrom you won’t forget.”
Singer Nik Leuthold adds, “‘How Do You Dare’ is a song about victim blaming, a phenomenon as unbearable as it is common, not only in the context of sexualized violence. The ‘bad character’ stereotypes levied at minorities only serve to falsely justify hate and aggression towards them. That’s not only disgusting; it is a second act of violence against the victim and traumatizes and intimidates them even more.”
The video was directed by Dave Bullivant and shot in Vilnius. The female lead was played by Brit Selina Jones, a rising star in the British theater sky, who won the 2022 Black British Theater Awards in the category “Best Female Actor in a Play.”
Leuthold further comments, “It was a great pleasure to work with Dave Bullivant. He is a specialist for music videos and thinks in the terms of the song. And he is a very intelligent and empathic person who is interested in the similar topics as we are. He managed to solve the difficult task to talk about victim blaming without binding it to only one context and even to confuse us as spectators enough for a brief moment to make us look at our own prejudices — genius!”
Director Bullivant adds, “The brief that came with this banger of a song was creatively open, but needed to touch on victim blaming, which is quite a tricky subject matter for a music video. I wrote a short narrative that touched on sexual assault, institutional racism, lazy policing, and a general abuse of power. I wrote the story with the reverse technique firmly in mind as I wanted to play with the viewers assumptions about who was the victim. Shot over two long nights in Lithuania with the most amazing cast and crew, it was a wonderful job to do.”
Jones, who in addition to her theater career has appeared in the Netflix production Kaos, as well as the HBOmax series Raised By Wolves, states, “Working with Dave and Jeanna and the rest of the production team was so amazing. They looked after us with such high quality and the music video was so fun! It was my first-ever music video and night shoot and I believed in the concept so much, victim blaming, especially with the context of race is something that should be discussed and I think Dave’s interpretation and aim to expose audience bias is really smart. I loved it and can’t wait to do more with this team.”
NONEXISTER live from the interplay of electronic energy and hard catharsis. As if they were sounding an after-hours club at the end of the world, the band, consisting of Marco Neeser (electronics, songwriting, production), Nik Leuthold (vocals, songwriting, production), Reto “Fu” Gaffuri (bass), Siro Müller (drums, backing vocals), and Silvan Gerhard (guitar, backing vocals), swing like a pendulum between moments of industrial ecstasy and moshpit-worthy outbursts.
