Billy Boyd Cape, born and bred in Kentish Town, is studying film production at university. But how many 19 year olds get to direct a video for Kanye West-signed Kentish Town-grown superstar Mr Hudson? (Answer: not many).
‘When I was 14 I knew him as my pop-star neighbour,’ he enthuses. ‘I never thought that five years later I’d be directing his latest music video.’
Indeed. And the video’s for BIGkids, a new band featuring Mr Hudson, a regular at the Alma Street festival , and Rosie Oddie (daughter of Bill). ‘BIGkids is exactly what I love about music,’ says Billy. ‘It makes you want to jump, shout and dance.’
Like many of you lot, they all believe in ‘Keepin It Kentish’ and so filmed everything locally in NW5. ‘It was shot almost entirely with the help of a million favours from Kentish Town. We borrowed the car from a genius neighbour, we ran around our local playgrounds and estates, did the tattooing scene in a hairdressers, and cycled around our back streets. The furthest we had to travel was The Garage in Highbury to get everyone in for a gig scene.’
As you’ll discover, the clip (featuring excellent child actors Felix Light and MJ Binns) has a definite point to make.
‘It’s kids wanting to grow up and fight back. It’s how adults just want to run down a street, go crazy and scream. Too much of today’s entertainment is patronizing and plays to the audience’s expectation,’ says Billy. ‘I wanted something which shook the audience and made them say “Holy shit, what’s happening here?” I’m a huge fan of directors like David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson and Edgar Wright, with their kinetic storytelling and beautiful visuals.’
But best of all? ‘We could sneak around quietly and pretend to folks that we were just working on a small school project.’
School project my ass. So let us know what you think. Oh, and can any Kentish Town geeks list all the locations? Mr Hudson, right, he’ll send you a prize if you do (he doesn’t know it yet but we have our ways). ‘Superhero’ is out on June 17.
2 thoughts on “Thursday Video Club: BIGKids ‘Superhero’”
Well done Billy, Rosie and Mr. Hudson – great vid and catchy tune! Can you KiK it? Keepin’ it Kentish indeed…
Awesome vid, awesome tune – and spotted one location outside my flat!