Go Behind-The Scenes Of Flying Lotus’ “Never Catch Me” Video w/ Director Hiro Murai

Last week, Flying Lotus dropped what was hands down the video of the year with the release of his absolutely stunning clip for “Never Catch Me” off the insta-classic You’re Dead LP. The track finds Kendrick Lamar delivering a dizzying display of verbal over FlyLo’s frantic frequency, while Thundercat croons and handles the low-end. As for the the video (which is still getting rotations ’round these parts)  it finds two children rising from their coffins at the their own funeral, dancing down the alter and busting through the church doors in a full-sprint to the sun.

Gripping as it may have been, the treatment opened the floodgates of curiosity, but fortunately for us all, FADER recently sat down with the video’s acclaimed director Hiro Murai for some behind-the-scenes insight on the creation of the clip. Head down below to watch the intense treatment and read over a few snippets from the interview delving into how the visual was conceived, where the two met, what the vibe was like on set and a whole lot more. Flying Lotus’ You’re Dead! LP is out now on iTunes, jump on that if you’ve yet to do so and head over to FADER for the full text.

Murai on how he and FlyLo met: 

“He knew my stuff with Earl, but I also worked with him once before. I did a short film with Donald Glover for one of his Childish Gambino projects, and Flying Lotus was an actor in it. I met him there and we’ve talked about doing something since then, but this was the first one that really stuck.

On how the concept for video came to be : 

“He was looking for an idea and I guess they were having some trouble. His original idea was about a black boy who was late to his own funeral, so it kind of had a Tom Sawyer thing happening. I really liked that as a seed because the entire album is about death, but the song has a childlike taunting quality to it. I took that idea and wrote it to be a dance piece with two kids.”

Speaking to the on-set atmosphere: 

“The crew was the same crew I’ve used for many years, so they’re very comfortable with the weird situations that I’ve put them in. It was weird for the kids’ parents. They were very supportive of the project, but it was a very visceral thing seeing their kids in coffins. As soon as they got there and they saw them in coffins and they saw the photos lined up on the table, they immediately started breaking down and crying, which is a very strange way to start a shoot day. But obviously I totally understand it, I’m sure it’s a crazy thing to witness. “