A great deal of water has passed under the bridge since Aqua hogged the TV screens in the guise of Barbie and Ken. These days, the cream of contemporary Danish music-video producers tend to peel back the covers and get down and dirty with human emotions.

“Kanye West called two months ago while I was making supper,” recalls Martin De Thurah, one of the world’s most in-demand video directors. Martin is just one reason why artists from all over the world look to Denmark when they need a cutting-edge video.

De Thurah’s breakthrough came in 2005 with the award-winning video for ‘Human’, by Danish band Carpark North. Shot in his old school, it features a number of teenagers dancing for the camera – but the dance isn’t exactly a thing of beauty. The movements are vulnerable and uncertain, unpolished and raw, without any unrealistic feats of athleticism. He shows how it feels to be overwhelmed by emotions you’re not quite capable of expressing yet. There is absolutely no bling here.

“I listen to the song and try to find an unusual angle,” he says. “I don’t just want to illustrate the song, I want to do something that expands its universe. It’s all about creating tension between the music and the images.”

It was the ‘Human’ video, more than anything else, that won Carpark North an audience outside Denmark. Since then, De Thurah has made videos for Editors, Mew, The Futureheads and Röyksopp.

“These things work best when there’s some kind of personal story, when you feel something real is happening. That’s what does it for me.”

Striking the right tone
Similar sentiments are expressed by Peder Pedersen, who made his breakthrough in 1997 with the video for Aqua’s global smash ‘Barbie Girl’. Since then he has worked with a host of Danish names, and is lucky enough to be able to choose which artists he wants to work with. But he’s no longer interested in making party videos. The low-budget 2003 promo for VETO’s ‘We Are Not Your Friends’ shows a boy drowning in a swimming pool after being bullied by his supposed friends.

“I try to strike the right tone, to grasp what it is the band want to bring out of their music,” he explains. “The Raveonettes, for example, like the 50s thing – and I’m pretty nuts about it too.” Pedersen finds the real challenge in the balancing act between doing something that both he and the band like and that the public will enjoy.

Change on the music scene
Pedersen thinks Danish music videos have improved since the days of ‘Barbie Girl’. “I’m really impressed by the new stuff. They’re better today than back then. They’re more tasteful. They probably learned from our mistakes,” he laughs.

“I think it has to do with the fact that the music scene has changed. Danish music used to be all bubblegum pop like Aqua. But in recent years there has been a reaction against that, and rock has been more to the fore. So we have bands like Mew, Kashmir, VETO, Spleen United and Nephew, who want something different from their videos.”

“A change has taken place, resulting in a more productive scene. The more people have enjoyed success making videos, the more others have thrown themselves into it. Hopefully this means that more talent will emerge.”

New talent
One of those talents is Lasse Martinussen. Like De Thurah, Martinussen is more interested in atmosphere than in what the song is about.

“A video should add something to the music. It should complement the song in a way the viewer didn’t see coming,” says Martinussen. And no one foresaw his 2006 video for Nephew’s ‘Science Fiction & Familien’, a surrealist nightmare that’s a million miles from the band’s previously cosy, welcoming, community-singalong image.

“Their earlier videos were more poppy, and I thought it would be interesting to draw out the darkness that I could sense in their universe.”

Despite his obvious talents, Martinussen doesn’t yet make a living from music videos, although he does enjoy the challenges of the medium. But maintaining high standards can be difficult.

“I don’t exactly get less ambitious with each video I make, which goes against the grain of the record companies’ priorities,” he explains. “There seems to be less and less money available for each video. I can see it from their perspective, but less money will mean poorer quality.”

Peder Pedersen agrees that the record companies have a major role to play if Danish music videos are to maintain their current standard. “There are lots of bands who want to do something interesting, but nobody dares put money into it.”

For De Thurah, the adventure continues abroad, where his videos are in great demand. Next stop: Kanye. “He sent me the whole album. I chose two songs and sketched out concepts for them. He wants to do both, but I think I can only manage one.”

Brought to you in collaboration with:
Boom Boom Magazine – The Sounds & Visions of Denmark