watch Solvey's creepy "Wave" video (and read about it's creepy "cabin in the woods" backstory)

by Bill Pearis

Solvey, the solo project of Jessica Zambri (of Zambri), have made a video for “Wave” from her very good debut album. It makes its premiere in this post. Directed by Addison Post and co-starring Noel Heroux of Mass Gothic and shot in Upstate NY woods, the video is definitely good for spooky Halloween viewing. Not seen in the video, but the house they stayed in while shooting was “heavy on creep vibes” too as Jessica recounts:

Barn door opened to reveal an ancient wooden wheelchair with a decrepit old doll sat up in the seat, its head broken-neck cocked in that way dolls like to do. Main floor all cluttered with smashed up furniture and sort of half-finished paintings of more dolls and of people with no faces. More actual dolls hung around. They either slumped in corners or showed only legs or arms protruding from piles of wood and other junk. We opened a desk drawer to find a solitary note: “HELP”, then in another drawer: “NO”. Upstairs on the top floor the only thing at all was a totally ramshackle drumset, fully set up and perfectly centered. Nothing else on that floor at all, whilst the rest of the place was jam packed with shit. Around 3am on the first night a couple of us did some very drunk basement exploring during a notably massive torrential downpour/thunderstorm. Found a huge collection of busted shovels, one bloody pitchfork and far too many refrigerators.

That sounds like pure “production value” to me, but the video has a story with a mysterious red-clad being doing who-knows-what in the woods. Which definitely has creep vibes as well. They did, however, send us some pictures from the house (including the doll on the creepy wheelchair) and you can check those out, read more about the weird making of the video as well as watch the video itself, below.

Solvey will be opening for Cymbals Eat Guitars at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade on November 7. Painted Zeros are also on the bill and tickets are still available.

"Wave" by Solvey from loroto on Vimeo.

Shot this Solvey video in one weekend in June with our friends who run Loroto Productions. Rented a house in upstate NY for three nights, very remote, heavily wooded area. It was a really great time but heavy on creep vibes.

Got there and dropped all our shit in the main house where we were meant to stay, then right away ran out back to check out this huge barn on the property. Barn door opened to reveal an ancient wooden wheelchair with a decrepit old doll sat up in the seat, its head broken-neck cocked in that way dolls like to do. Main floor all cluttered with smashed up furniture and sort of half-finished paintings of more dolls and of people with no faces. More actual dolls hung around. They either slumped in corners or showed only legs or arms protruding from piles of wood and other junk. We opened a desk drawer to find a solitary note: “HELP”, then in another drawer: “NO”. Upstairs on the top floor the only thing at all was a totally ramshackle drumset, fully set up and perfectly centered. Nothing else on that floor at all, whilst the rest of the place was jam packed with shit. Around 3am on the first night a couple of us did some very drunk basement exploring during a notably massive torrential downpour/thunderstorm. Found a huge collection of busted shovels, one bloody pitchfork and far too many refrigerators.

Back in the house first thing we notice is none of the doors are lockable, but every night someone ended up locked outside anyway. No cell reception so you couldn’t call someone to let you in, just had to pound on doors/windows and yell. It was totally pitch black out there at night, and maybe it’s just me but when it’s that dark in the woods and you’re outside alone the last thing you want to do is make a fucking racket because bears/ghosts/murderman.

Day after the rainstorm we found the basement of the house had flooded and someone (me) had to get the laundry we’d run the night before. I sloshed several paces through the water in bare feet toward the washer/dryer, then see the power cables, plugged into extension cords, connections underwater, the active leads visibly exposed. No tripped fuses and the machines were still on, so I don’t understand how I didn’t get electrocuted and die or at least get shocked into unconsciousness and then drown in knee-deep rainwater.

Also a vehicle was rented for the shoot and the car-handlers, on top of being 3 hours late, brought their 6 and 8 yr olds along. The kids were running insane all over the house and yard demanding “snacks”, yelling whining and swearing at whoever was around and could possibly hook up snacks. At some point they took an entire unopened 18-pack of seltzer from the kitchen, then hucked all 18 cans at the rocks around the backyard fire pit, exploding them, wasting the only tequila mixer we had. That part wasn’t scary but dude control your kids.