NU SHOOZ Orchestra is proud to unveil their new video, “Spy vs. Spy” directed by Mike Wellins. “Spy vs. Spy” is a retro fantasy epic that takes the NSO on an impossible mission to far away fictitious eastern nations, and to that most dangerous region of all…the mind.
The Nu Shooz Orchestra is an offshoot of the popular ‘80’s band led by Valerie Day and John Smith. Not content to rest on their laurels, Day and Smith started the NSO in 2007 as a ‘music laboratory’ for their continuing explorations in sound. “We’ve done a lot of different kinds of music since the ‘80’s,” Day says, “And we wanted to build a bridge between Then and Now.” After NU SHOOZ, Valerie sang jazz with big bands, orchestras and small groups, while John scored indie films and commercials.
Mike Wellins is a director at Laika, the animation studio in Portland Oregon, and the mastermind behind Freaky Butt True – a website featuring Mike’s creative pursuits. An animator, children’s book author, and Renaissance man, he created the Spy vs. Spy video with a combination of live action, cut out animation (ala Terry Gilliam) and found art. Mike writes:
“The new Spy vs. Spy song from the Nu Shooz Orchestra is fantastic. The music is hypnotic and cinematic and hearkens back to a James Bond world infested with top secret operations at every turn. I enlisted the help of some animator friends for this covert project. The visuals are a fun amalgam of all things spy related, with a bend toward the stylized retro look of the 50′s and 60′s, the spy hey day. I think we succeeded in our quest to create the end all, be all, top secret, international espionage pageant. It’s funny, intriguing, and action packed to say the least. This message will self destruct in 5 seconds…”
“Spy vs. Spy” was the first song written for the NSO album “Pandora’s Box”, released in 2010. “Valerie was reading about Carl Jung and the unconscious mind, and I was going through a flirtation with ‘60’s spy music,” Smith says. “And I realized that we have all this espionage going on in our own heads.”
So check out ‘Spy vs. Spy’ by the Nu Shooz Orchestra. It’s pop/jazz/cinema – shaken, not stirred.
CREDITS:
Actors
Nick Childs
John W. Creighton
Animators
Jasper Thun
Jon David Buffam
Mike Wellins
Artists
Jon David Buffam
John Smith
Lisa Freeman
Guy Burwell
Tracy Prescott MacGregor
Scott Foster
Thanks to:
Lisa Freeman, Nick Childs, Jasper Thun,
John David Buffman, Tracy Prescott MacGregor,
Scott Foster, Guy Burwell, Lourri Hammack,
Trevor Cable, Julian Thun, Alan Garren,
Eric Bute and John W. Creighton.
And a special thanks from Nu Shooz Orchestra to Joanna Priestley for introducing us to Mike!
