Video: Sere - Hazy (UTR Premiere)

Last month Auckland psychedelic doom outfit sere let loose their incredible debut single 'Hazy', and today the group are lifting the lid on an accompanying video - which UTR is delighted to premiere. The grainy clip has been cooked up using Super 8 footage that was shot in an Aussie working class town in the 70s by the parents of vocalist/guitarist Grant Sheridan, and it makes a wonderful visual accompaniment to the resounding cut.

The four-piece, which sees Sheridan joined by Calum Gunn, Zac Arnold and Bridge Shoebridge, are on the precipice of releasing their self-titled debut album via Arcade Recordings next month, so in anticipation we picked Sheridan's brains about the record and the video. Watch the clip below and then have a wee read...

UTR: I understand the video for ‘Hazy' is made up of found Super 8 footage. Can you tell us a bit of the story behind that?

GS: My parents lived in a small mining town in deep Western Australia in the mid to late 70s called Paraburdoo. I can’t remember exactly what my father did, but mum worked in the workshops working on trucks and stuff. It was a pretty far out thing to do as a women in the 70s and Mum was the only woman in the area to do so. The footage was filmed by my Dad and his mate just before they left to come back to New Zealand and growing up I’d heard heaps about the place it and seen many photographs.

Why did you decide to use that footage for the clip as opposed to shooting something new for the song?

I remembered that there was this film downstairs at Mum’s place, and I figured since we needed a video and I had been wanting to see that footage since I was a kid, it was a great excuse to get it digitised. My Mum hadn’t ever seen the footage ever, so it was a bonus to give her the nostalgia because she loved Paraburdoo.

sere formed roughly a year ago, and in that time you’ve gained a reputation as must-see live band for your thundering live shows. Where there any challenges specific to capturing that dynamic live sound to tape? What were you aiming to achieve with the recordings?

I have always admired musicians that don’t’ try and be the same band on stage as they are recorded. It’s great when each aspect is considered and treated accordingly. With Sere, and bear in mind it’s our first proper crack at recording with this band, we tried to make it an engrossing recording, so, to not try and actually simulate the live thing. We still wanted the raw live power, but we also wanted to add layers and depth to it so there is a bit more than just what it appears on the surface. We took our time with it too, which I think helped us to look at it and reflect on it as it was being put together. Because we are a quarter pack, we are limited live to playing just one instrument at a time, so with the recording I could add the other things, synths and weird noises specifically, that I always want there to be in the live setting, and have in the back of my head, but can’t we actually pull off live. So the recording realm gave us a chance to do that.

And finally can you clear something up for us... There’s been a few questions floating around about the name “sere”. How do you pronounce it? And why did you choose it?

HAHAHAHAHA. I love this. Sere rhymes with ear. That’s how we say it. BUT, if you prefer Seré (sa-ray), then it’s up to you. Potato/Potato y’know. The name came about because Zac wanted a tough sounding name. I didn’t care just as long as it wasn’t offensive. I was very, very sick of having an offensive band name [ed note: Grant used to perform in Sexpest]. Sere, is an acronym from a military program “Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape” that teaches military how to deal with being trapped behind enemy lines. It’s pretty brutal stuff. It was reverse-engineered to torture people. Tough. One really cool thing is depending on pronunciation, it means many different things in different languages. It’s meant to mean “I will be” in future tense in Spanish. It’s an old term for “dry and withered” in English and “evening” in Italian. It quite fantastic it has so many meanings. So, in effect, to say it either way is correct, it’s just one way is slightly more correct than the other haha.


sere's self-titled album is slated for release on Friday 22nd July via Arcade Recordings. It will be available on LP, cassette (thanks to Prison Tapes) and CD via the group's Bandcamp page

You can catch the sere boys next Thursday 1st July at Golden Dawn in Auckland for a special DJ set as K.I.S.S. (Knights In Sere's Service). Keep your eyes peeled for more details.