TJ Cowgill, otherwise known as King Dude, recently released a mysteriously haunting new music video for his ‘Velvet Rope‘ single. The second track off of his upcoming ‘Music To Make War To‘ following ‘Time To Go To War‘, it’s five minutes in length and centers around a delicious piano motif. ‘Velvet Rope‘ was directed by Vlad Protsenko and produced by Nastya Ivashchuk.
Explaining the beginnings of the video and his inspiration to shoot in the Ukraine, King Dude had this to say: “I wanted to visit Kiev again after playing there last October for the first time. There’s just so much life there I felt like I had to go back. I think it has a lot to do with them winning the revolutionary war against their government in 2014. There’s a certain intangible energy to Ukraine and to the all the wonderful people that I’ve met there—they seem ecstatic to be alive, finally free from a corrupt government. It struck me as the perfect place to make a music video for a song on ‘Music To Make War To’. It just so happened that one of the few people I knew in Kiev, my friend and concert promoter Nastya also works for one of the best film companies in Ukraine as a producer. So I followed the signs, boarded a plane for Kiev, and this video for ‘Velvet Rope’ became the result.”
Director, Protsenko, says, “When I first heard the song I instantly thought, ‘OK, this is definitely about an older woman dancing in a Soviet-era apartment.’ Eventually only five seconds of that part made it to the final cut. The song gave me this sense of despair, a taste of a strained and restrained relationship that is hard to get out of. I figured it would be cool to develop this relationship between an older woman and a younger guy, which will also be reminiscent of a mother/son relationship, and we won’t tell the viewer who they really are to each other, leaving them guessing and making their own assumptions. We all have seen King Dude drinking whiskey, casually strolling across cemetery, cutting raw meat, and generally being this infernal character in his videos. I wanted to show him making bed, serving tea, being bored, trapped in some kind of trivial life conditions. I wanted him to be frustrated and completely not cool. The latter never actually worked out, because look at him. He looks cool even licking a teaspoon!”
If you’d like to check out Cowgill performing in person (most likely looking cool), see a list of tour dates below to find when he’s in your area along with Kælan Mikla. ‘Music To Make War To’ will be released August 24th via Ván.