DEFTONES have tapped Leigh Whannell, writer of the original "Saw" and "Insidious" movies and writer-director of 2018's "Upgrade", to direct the official music video for their song "Ceremony". Cleopatra Coleman, who co-starred in Fox's "The Last Man On Earth" comedy series, stars in the clip, which can be seen below.
Whannell, who more recently wrote and directed a new take on "The Invisible Man", previously expressed his appreciation for DEFTONES' latest album, "Ohms", on social media last November. At the time, he tweeted: "Hello this album is excellent (probably my favourite DEFTONES ever) and you should listen to it if you like music that is heavy and beautiful simultaneously."
This past Monday (April 19), after DEFTONES shared a poster for the "Ceremony" video, with Whannell's name listed as the director, he took to his Twitter to write: "One day I wrote on Twitter that I was loving the new @deftones album. The next day their manager sent me a DM asking if I wanted to direct a music video for them. I said yes. The moral of the story is talk about the things you love on Twitter, not the things you hate. Specifically I mean talk about the ART and pop culture you love, not the art and pop culture you hate. When it comes to politicians and their stupidity and insanity, all bets are obviously off."
DEFTONES singer Chino Moreno said: "When Leigh tweeted that he was a fan, we immediately thought it would be cool to collaborate with him given the chance. We're fans of his as well, so it made sense that we should reach out. One moment we're DM'ing each other on Twitter, and the next we're on set making 'Ceremony'. This has always been the best way for us to collaborate: organically, collaboratively and in this case, expeditiously. We hope everyone enjoys it as much as we had making it."
Whannell added: "I've been a huge DEFTONES fan for over 20 years and have always admired the devotion they have dedicated to every aspect of their art — from music videos to album covers to their cryptic and intriguing lyrics. To get a chance to be a part of that art was a dream come true."
"Ceremony" is taken from DEFTONES' ninth album, "Ohms", which arrived in September. The LP was recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles, California and Trainwreck Studios in Woodinville, Washington with veteran producer and engineer Terry Date, who previously worked on 1995's "Adrenaline", 1997's "Around The Fur" and 2000's "White Pony".
Moreno told BBC Radio 1's "Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter" about "Ceremony": "That was one of the first songs that we wrote. But a lot of the stuff kind of comes from jamming. So 'Ceremony' was one of those ones where someone was just playing something, and then everybody just kind of picks up their instrument, like, Oh,' [and] starts reacting to each other, and then it just starts to build.
"I feel like I really connected with the song," he continued. "Lyrically, that song is pretty dark. I kind of tether with the true meaning of that song, 'cause it’s really, really, really bad. It's not good. That's a hard one to talk about. But as far as the music and the whole vibe, the whole song, to me, I think that it's a special one on this record, for sure."
DEFTONES is Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham, programmer Frank Delgado and bassist Sergio Vega.
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