SOKO: New Song And Short Film “Monster Love / I Just Want To Make It New With You” On Nowness.com

Singer-songwriter-musician SOKO has premiered the new song and short film for “Monster Love / I Just Want To Make It New With You” via www.Nowness.com (watch below). SOKO both directed and stars in the short film–filmed on VHS in her usual DIY style like her previous clips–alongside Morgan Krantz and actor, model and marine activist Hannah Fraser. The soundtrack for the clip features both “Monster Love,” feat. Ariel Pink (of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti) off her forthcoming album My Dreams Dictate My Reality and “I Just Want To Make It New With You,” a track off her just released debut I THOUGHT I WAS AN ALIEN out now on Community Music, the Los Angeles-based indie label founded by Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

Watch the video and check out an exclusive Q&A with SOKO and Ariel Pink on www.Nowness.com  below.

SOKO’s “Monster Love / I Just Want To Make It New With You”:

NOWNESS (film, Q&A): http://www.nowness.com/day/2013/6/26/3127/soko–monster-love

SOKO (film only): http://www.youtube.com/user/SoKoMusic/videos

NOWNESS – Q&A with SOKO and Ariel Pink

Soko: Monster Love

The Multitalented Musician and Actress Duets with Ariel Pink Over a Bittersweet LA Tale

A street-stranded mermaid fends off a kitsch beast in Monster Love, a new VHS-recorded promo directed by Soko, who also stars alongside Morgan Krantz and actor, model and marine activist Hannah Fraser. Filmed in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, the short is soundtracked by a song that shares its title, the French polymath’s brand new duet with Los Angeles’ lo-fi underground star, Ariel Pink, that will feature on her forthcoming album. “The whole thing was super DIY and felt like making a school project video with all my friends,” she says. Born in Bordeaux, Soko has starred in a number of films in her homeland, and recently attracted much acclaim in Augustine, a sensuous, César-nominated tale about a 19th-century maid consigned to an asylum. But despite her passion for acting, music remains Soko’s most cherished source of creativity. She has just released her debut album I Thought I Was an Alien in the US, which opens with the stripped-down and haunting track that also features here: “I Just Want to Make It New With You,” written with her collaborator Pink in mind. “We were friends, falling in love, but he was just out of a relationship and I—as always—was broken hearted,” the singer says of a near miss that was the catalyst for today’s film, in which she falls for the luckless protagonist. “We hadn’t shed the heaviness of our past. I imagined that after relationships, we all turn into some sort of monster, and only if we stop being monstrous will we ever be able to be real lovers again.” We got the two together to talk about recording, acting, and the logistics behind becoming a mermaid.

Ariel Pink: The song “I Just Want to Make It New With You” has to do with me a little bit, right?

Soko: Yeah, I wrote it for you Ariel! And you’re singing on the first song in the film, “Monster Love.”

Ariel Pink: I saw the video and, like all your work, it’s so good. It’s touching, I can’t help but feel for the character. Who the beautiful mermaid lady?

Soko: She’s actually a real mermaid performer—it’s my friend Hannah who does performances in Las Vegas. She goes swimming with sharks, whales and dolphins all over the world, and hand makes her own costumes. She’s really incredible. She gave me some footage of her swimming under water so that the monster could dream of her. Morgan’s costume was actually a Halloween costume made by my friend Diva: it was perfect, a monster costume with a heart on it.

Ariel Pink: It’s so great, all this attention you’re getting. And your new movie [Augustine] just came out. How do you feel about the movie and your performance?

Soko: It was crazy, insane and one of the best things I have done in my whole life. It was the best adventure and experience because it was so far from me. The only reason why I wanted to do movies was because I want to experience things I would never get to experience in my real life. And then I get to be in a film where I’m back in the 1880s in costume, wearing a corset, being a patient in a mental hospital and getting diagnosed.

Ariel Pink: You’re not acting. You probably would be committed to a mental institution.

Soko: Yeah right! Well I was paralyzed in the movie, I had my eyes shut for half of the movie and I had my hand paralyzed. I don’t have that in my real life.

Ariel Pink: Well let’s hope not. I think that’s amazing. I want to make a video with you sometime. I want you to be in my movie when I make it.

Soko: I wanted you to be in my video.

Ariel Pink: Me too, but you know how busy we are.

Soko: But I’m glad throughout the years we always get to collaborate and you are always a part of my creative work as a constant pole and an inspiring muse. It is really important for me, and I love making music with you too.

Ariel Pink: Oh my God, we have to make so much more together. There is so much left to do, we have just scratched the surface.

Currently in the U.S. for a promo trek, SOKO will announce plans for a nationwide music tour soon.

http://www.s-o-k-o.com

https://www.facebook.com/soko

https://twitter.com/SoKothecat

http://www.youtube.com/sokomusic

http://instagram.com/sokothecat#

http://communitymusic.com

SOKO, VARIETY magazine feature: http://msopr.com/files/variety_5.2013.pdf

About SOKO: SOKO is one-of-a-kind: intimate, vulnerable, vital, tear-stained, heartbreaking and lo-fi to ethereal, haunted sounds, often all at once. I THOUGHT I WAS AN ALIEN is full of love and loss and worry, the kind of fundamental, life-dictating human feelings which are so far beyond rational explanation. SOKO has the rare ability to sing openly about those feelings, in a way which is utterly compelling, sometimes devastating, but also, completely uplifting. “The title I THOUGHT I WAS AN ALIEN is about social alienation,” explains SOKO. The explosive young Frenchwoman’s songs have already touched people around the world, earning her a devoted, global following. Since her teens, SOKO has been on a roller coaster journey. From a stockpile of over 100 songs, she finally whittled them down to 14 for I THOUGHT I WAS AN ALIEN. Prolific songwriting aside, SOKO is known for directing and creating all of her own music videos and artwork in her unique, DIY style. SOKO has appeared in 13 French films. She won “Best Actress” last Fall at the Mar Del Plata Film Festival in Argentina for her starring role in Augustine (Music Box) and she’s been nominated for a César Award for (In the Beginning, French: À l’origine). SOKO is garnering rave reviews for Augustine out now in limited U.S. release through August. For a list of theaters showing Augustine, visit: http://www.musicboxfilms.com/augustine-movies-66.php.

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