Skerzo is a band that has long established itself as one of the most interesting and original acts in the world of music. Their musical legacy is rich with diverse genre elements, making each of their releases highly anticipated and unique. “Catnip” was no exception. The music video for “Catnip” also deserves attention. It visualizes the atmosphere of the track and adds an additional layer of meaning to it. To understand how Skerzo created “Catnip” and what their creative process was like, we conducted an interview with the band members. They shared their inspirations, talked about their work on the track and video, as well as how music influences their own lives and the lives of their listeners.

V: Hello, guys! It’s great that you found the time to chat with us. So, the first question is, why did you choose “Catnip” out of all the songs and make a music video for it?

Henry: We find it so fun making music videos! It’s another creative avenue we get to express ourselves in and we’ve all got a bit of a knack for the visual stuff too. We’ll usually always release a music video alongside our singles, even if it’s just a quick D.I.Y vid. When we were deciding on what the singles would be for ‘Dreamland’ we had ‘Catnip’ as one of them originally but it eventually got subbed out for ‘Love’. However, now that the album has been out for a little while we thought it still deserved its own video. It’s a special song to us and it’s become a bit of a fan favourite lately.

Luke: I think catnip had a particular appeal when it came to video adaptation because it is much more story driven than some other Skerzo songs and had potential to draw visual parallels, particularly in some of the more emotive sections.

V: “Catnip” promises to be a remarkable phenomenon. Your brand new single seems like a unique blend of the past and the present. Which albums or bands inspire you as a collective to create this amazing sound that resonates with psychedelia and indie rock?

Luke: As a group I think we draw on some of the more classic psych artists like Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Jethro Tull, which informs us when it comes to how the music we love has arrived where it is today. That said though, I think our sound borrows more heavily from more modern local acts like The Murlocs or Tame Impala and of course King Gizzard.

Henry: King Gizzard first got me started on the Psych stuff when I was in Highschool. Nowadays one of my favourite bands is MGMT, especially the more Gothic-Psychedelic-Pop stuff they’ve been doing in recent years. Their album ‘Little Dark Age’ is something I draw on a lot. I’ve always been into Indie as well with artists like Mac Demarco, Peach Pit, or Her’s. That particular sound is just so playful and fun, so I can’t help it coming out in my songwriting.

V: “Catnip” seems filled with mystique and enigma. What ideas or stories form the basis of the song’s lyrics?

Henry: I definitely wanted the lyrics to feel a little mysterious and cryptic on this one. I wanted to evoke the feeling of trying to remember a vivid dream, because the concept was initially conceived around a dream I had like that once. In this dream, I casually woke up in a cat’s body and had this conversation with my family’s cat about the easy-living house-cat lifestyle. That’s as much of the dream as I can remember, but out of that idea came a more dramatic story where this character, in the midst of an existential crisis, is envious of their pet cat and yearns for its lifestyle.

V: In your description of “Catnip,” you mention the influence of vintage psychedelic rock. Which musical groups or artists inspire you in this genre?

Henry: There’s a few Psych-ish bands from before my time that inspire me and definitely influence my songwriting quite a bit such as The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Velvet Underground, early-era Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett, a lot of The Beatles too.

Luke: Some of the older stuff I’ve listened to a lot is bands like Jethro Tull, Camel, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks and a whole lot of The Doors

V: Could you share the creative process behind the making of the music video for “Catnip”?

Henry: When I pictured a music video for ‘Catnip’ in my head, I always imagined some abstract, neon, fluorescent animation, and I think we’ve brought that to life pretty well! I just animated it myself in Adobe After Effects learning from youtube tutorials. There was a little bit of green screening involved in the animated sections, for which I just bought some rolls of bright green fabric from the local Spotlight, and it was all shot at my sharehouse in Kensington. I bought a cat puppet online (for a bit much more than I’m willing to admit) and our buddy Jordan from the band Scud let us borrow his projector. We didn’t have any amazing video cameras but my parents’ old sony camcorder seemed to do a pretty good job, and probably added to the vintage-esque vibe of the video too. Most of our music videos are pretty D.I.Y like that, but I like to try and set a new standard with each one we release. I want to try and demonstrate to other small emerging bands like us that you can definitely accomplish great professional-looking music videos with little to no budgeting.

V: The visual representation of “Catnip” promises to be extraordinary and expressive. What special techniques or creative solutions were used during the filming to convey your message to the audience?

Henry: We wanted to try and mimic a dream-like sequence to compliment the lyrics and thought the projector really encapsulated that vision. There’s some brief clips in there towards the end where we’ve created a video feedback loop by facing the camcorder at itself on the projector which created this amazing kaleidoscopic spiral effect. Although it’s only in there pretty briefly, I’m pretty proud of how it played out and came together especially considering it came together on the fly while filming.

V: How did you come up with the unique title “Catnip” for the song, and is there an interesting story behind it?

Henry: I mostly just wanted to write a song about cats because I’m a big cat person haha. I wanted to do a play on Psychedelic-Rock culture with songs about mind-altering, third-eye-opening drug trips, and use catnip as a stand-in for that, hence “that catnip hit me deep”. I think it fit well with the existential themes in the song and made the idea of a talking cat more “realistic” in a way. The character is basically having a bad trip and the cat is their calming trip-sitter.

V: What emotion or message would you like listeners to take away after listening to “Catnip” and watching the music video?

Henry: I’d hope listeners might be encouraged to check in on their friends. You never know what someones going through, especially when they’re alone. I personally find loneliness pretty daunting and hard to handle sometimes. So look out for people, don’t let anyone get too lonely. And also that cats are great! They’re awesome companions, they’re loving, they’re caring, they’re soft and they’ll keep you company.

V: Do you have any upcoming concerts or events where we can enjoy your unique sound and, of course, hear the new track live? If so, where and when can we see you perform live?

Henry: We’re doing a live screening for ‘Catnip’ at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood VIC on November 10th. We’re pretty excited because we’ve never done a screening before. I think it’ll be so much fun to watch the video live along with all our friends and fans. We’ve also got some amazing Melbourne-based indie bands ‘Peach Fuzz’ and ‘My Giddy Aunt’ supporting us for that one too. After that we’ll be supporting ‘Scatter Light’ on Dec 9th for their single launch tour at the Last Chance Rock ‘n Roll Bar in Melbourne, and you can also catch us at the Bergy Bandroom in Brunswick on Dec 16th for ‘SnoozeFest’.

V: “Catnip” describes an atmosphere where the old and the new intertwine. If you could have dinner with any musician from the past or present, who would it be, and what would you like to discuss?

Luke: I’d probably have to go for Brian Eno, I think his outlook would be so interesting on a range of topics. I think I would discuss his perspective on the place of art and how the process of listening to music could change in different situations (like a live gig vs a record). I think as a band we would all be pretty keen to pick his brain about his recording processes.

Henry: Bjork would be pretty insane to talk to. She’s such a unique artist and is constantly creating new unconventional ways of making and performing music. Given I haven’t really experimented with songwriting too much (at least not at that kind of level haha) I’d love to pick her brain and discuss how she developes her outlandish ideas and makes them real.