Verse Metrics not only create powerful and potent music, they carry a deeper message within their songs. None runs as deep as their new single, ‘My Name Is Dr Hildegarde Lanstrom And I Am Quite, Quite Mad’, which we are bringing you the video for today.
“This song is about feeling you are coming towards the end of an era of a main part of your life,” explains Verse Metrics vocalist/guitarist, Bob Dick. “For me personally it’s about fading youth (not about getting older, that’s different) and trying to work out how to approach these feelings and deal with them. I don’t want to stop challenging myself. Just because I am the age I am doesn’t mean I can’t balance being responsible and enjoying myself, be that playing in the band or otherwise. The “abandon our posts, find a road we recognise and race home” verse is addressing thoughts of giving up challenging yourself because things are getting difficult. And “We’ll be listening and remembering until we’re old and unsteady” is the defiant and final statement, a vow to always be aware, learning, challenging and improving.”
The video itself is also very specially to the band, and Bob explains that it matches the tone of the single.”The video reflects these inner struggles, the search for calmness and clarity and the willingness to meet challenges head on,” he continues. “I have always loved being underwater. I think it’s the sensory change, your hearing and vision become dulled but your skin all of a sudden has all over contact and support and you become very aware of your skin inwards instead of your skin outwards. So it was important for me to have the shots of me singing underwater, these are some of my favourite scenes in the video.”
Right down to the locations, everything was chosen for ‘My Name Is Dr Hildegarde Lanstrom And I Am Quite, Quite Mad’ with the song specifically in mind. “My other favourite scenes are at Loch Ard and with the flare at Irvine beach,” he says. “At Loch Ard I’m walking along the jetty towards the lake, and there’s the little safe house/shelter way across the lake. There’s such a gulf between where I am and where I’m heading towards with no bridge to take me there. At Irvine beach I’m walking into the onrushing sea holding up a distress signal, with the sea being life and challenges, and me walking into it being facing those challenges head on. We were very lucky with this sequence actually. This was the first scene we shot, it was beautiful day and the sea was very calm, and I walked into the sea holding up smoke bombs.
“The shots looked great, but when we went to edit we found that memory card had corrupted, so we had to shoot it again. By this point I’d realised a flare would make much more sense and look more striking, and by chance I managed to source some flares, the last ones in the shop! When we went to do it the weather was mental, the sea was so choppy it kept knocking me over, and the final result just matches the music and the theme perfectly. It was one of those times you have a huge slice of luck, I’m very grateful for it.”
‘My Name Is Dr Hildegarde Lanstrom And I Am Quite, Quite Mad’ is taken from Verse Metrics new EP, ‘We’ll Be Listening And Remembering Until We’re Old And Unsteady’, which is available to pre-order from Lonely Voyage Records.