MMOTHS (aka Jack Colleran), the Dublin-based electronic music producer, recently dropped the Diaries EP, the follow-up to his debut EP, MMOTHS. Full of dense, swirling electronic textures, MMOTHS' work assures the young producer's place on the musical map, and portends more incredible music to come.For the premiere of his "All These Things" video, we spoke to Colleran over the phone about the video's production, as well as his collaboration with Holly Miranda.What was the genesis of the video? Were you approached or did you find someone who you wanted to do the video?
With this whole project, everyone is in some way connected with this place where I'm from. Everything is about family. The director, Jamie Delaney, is a good friend of mine from my hometown, and he did the first video. That's how he ended up doing the "All These Things" video.Yeah, that really seems to be the theme coming out of Dublin. Everyone seems supportive and connected there, even across genres. John Kowalski from Solar Bears, for instance, is very committed to showing the world Dublin's unique musical atmosphere.
There isn't really a history of anything here aside from traditional Irish music, so I think everyone wants to work together and make this a place that is looked upon as a home for a certain thing, whether that be electronic music, or just music in general, and events. We were never part of a place where people would say, "Oh, let's go there 'cause it's cool as fuck," like in Brooklyn or New York, in general. I think everyone wants to create something new. There is a new generation of people aiming for that, and I think that John is sort of the overseer.When I put my first track online, I knew nothing about electronic music. John hit me up like he was one of my best friends and said, "You should listen to this, you should listen to this, you should listen to this and this because you sound like them." And I was like, "Whoa!" I used to listen to folk and indie music, but he introduced me to this whole world of electronic music. He's the absolute dude. He's the best guy.Absolutely. Back to Jamie's work on the video, how involved were you with the shoot?
I always kind of want to have a finger in whatever's happening. When he was writing up the treatment, I was there. When he was color grading, I was there because I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. All the videos we've done have been shot in Ireland in the most diverse landscapes. The video was shot an hour outside of Dublin. It snowed the night before the shoot, and it hadn't snowed in months and months, so we were really, really lucky how it turned out.In the video, there is this Jungian shadow presence who appears at intervals alongside a character who walks through a forest landscape. Is there a particular meaning implicit in this shadow?
The first EP, MMOTHS, was a representation of where I was at the time. Although it made sense, I didn't really know what I was doing. With this new EP, Diaries, I thought about what I was doing—I'm kind of moving forward and this is where I'm at. So, the whole idea for the video was that this character—and it's not necessarily me—is trying to, I guess, find himself. It's the process of him finding out what's going on in his head and growing up, in general. But, it's not meant to be blatantly obvious, because this whole project is not meant to force anything upon anyone. Take what you want from what you're listening to. It's not about money, cars, and bitches. [Laughs] The whole point was just to make something beautiful, and Jamie did a great job.
I always though the track was lacking something, and I knew I didn't feel comfortable releasing it by itself, even though we played it live without vocals. It works in that setting, but I always thought there was this tiny sliver of room for something else. I tried to add different melodies and nothing worked, so I thought this was a track that needed vocals.One of the guys at the label knew Holly from a while back. When he heard I wanted a vocalist, he said, "Holly Miranda." So I sent over the song and she liked it. It doesn't work to force creativity on someone, so I let her do whatever she wanted. And when I heard what she'd done, it was ten times more than I expected.The All These Things EP is out now on SQE Music.
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With this whole project, everyone is in some way connected with this place where I'm from. Everything is about family. The director, Jamie Delaney, is a good friend of mine from my hometown, and he did the first video. That's how he ended up doing the "All These Things" video.Yeah, that really seems to be the theme coming out of Dublin. Everyone seems supportive and connected there, even across genres. John Kowalski from Solar Bears, for instance, is very committed to showing the world Dublin's unique musical atmosphere.
There isn't really a history of anything here aside from traditional Irish music, so I think everyone wants to work together and make this a place that is looked upon as a home for a certain thing, whether that be electronic music, or just music in general, and events. We were never part of a place where people would say, "Oh, let's go there 'cause it's cool as fuck," like in Brooklyn or New York, in general. I think everyone wants to create something new. There is a new generation of people aiming for that, and I think that John is sort of the overseer.When I put my first track online, I knew nothing about electronic music. John hit me up like he was one of my best friends and said, "You should listen to this, you should listen to this, you should listen to this and this because you sound like them." And I was like, "Whoa!" I used to listen to folk and indie music, but he introduced me to this whole world of electronic music. He's the absolute dude. He's the best guy.
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I always kind of want to have a finger in whatever's happening. When he was writing up the treatment, I was there. When he was color grading, I was there because I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. All the videos we've done have been shot in Ireland in the most diverse landscapes. The video was shot an hour outside of Dublin. It snowed the night before the shoot, and it hadn't snowed in months and months, so we were really, really lucky how it turned out.In the video, there is this Jungian shadow presence who appears at intervals alongside a character who walks through a forest landscape. Is there a particular meaning implicit in this shadow?
The first EP, MMOTHS, was a representation of where I was at the time. Although it made sense, I didn't really know what I was doing. With this new EP, Diaries, I thought about what I was doing—I'm kind of moving forward and this is where I'm at. So, the whole idea for the video was that this character—and it's not necessarily me—is trying to, I guess, find himself. It's the process of him finding out what's going on in his head and growing up, in general. But, it's not meant to be blatantly obvious, because this whole project is not meant to force anything upon anyone. Take what you want from what you're listening to. It's not about money, cars, and bitches. [Laughs] The whole point was just to make something beautiful, and Jamie did a great job.
During the course of recording "All These Things," how did you end up collaborating with Holly Miranda?
I always though the track was lacking something, and I knew I didn't feel comfortable releasing it by itself, even though we played it live without vocals. It works in that setting, but I always thought there was this tiny sliver of room for something else. I tried to add different melodies and nothing worked, so I thought this was a track that needed vocals.One of the guys at the label knew Holly from a while back. When he heard I wanted a vocalist, he said, "Holly Miranda." So I sent over the song and she liked it. It doesn't work to force creativity on someone, so I let her do whatever she wanted. And when I heard what she'd done, it was ten times more than I expected.The All These Things EP is out now on SQE Music.