The Icelandic band have premiered the official music video for ‘Empire’ shot by Tabitha Denholm. The video also features models Erika Linder & Ingmari Lamy.
Commenting on the video, Denholm said, ‘We see the same fanciful ideas of women’s sexuality again and again in music videos which I find it hard to relate to. So when Of Monsters And Men said they wanted to make a video about a forbidden relationship I was excited! I want to make videos with stories about women that we don’t usually see.’
‘This is a Harold and Maude type relationship. The older character actually has the more youthful, liberated spirit which inspires the jaded youngster. It’s a twist on the conventions of age that is often borne out in real life. The fact that they are both women has a magical dimension in that Ingmari the elder can see herself in Erika, but i think the profound effect one person can have on another is quite magical.’
‘From the inception I had the model Erika Linder in mind for the younger character. She is uniquely stunning, famously she modelled as a boy and a girl but foremost she is just Erika. The way she exists beyond convention made her perfect for this project. Then the moment I saw a picture ofIngmari Lamy I knew she had that luminescent quality it would take to make the relationship believable. She was a big model in the 60s discovered by Bob Richardson but if anything she has grown more beautiful with age. Spending time with her in LA I have never known anyone to get so much attention for their looks form random passers by.’
‘Coincidentally we had to fly both ladies in from Sweden (although it took a while to track Ingmari down because she was in a cosmic a retreat with no communication with the outside). There is something timeless about that Swedish aesthetic that helped to sell the idea that the characters were deeply connected.’