Think of PS I Love You’s second album, Death Dreams, as the gift that keeps on giving. Six months after the record's release, the indie-rock duo, comprised of Paul Saulnier and Benjamin Nelson, have a brand new music video for “Saskatoon,” complete with wide expanses of never-ending blue skies, fields of gold and other Prairies-appropriate imagery.
But directors Colin Medley and Jared Raab have crafted something more like a mini documentary than music video, intercutting the gorgeous footage with interview material featuring Saulnier and Nelson talking about the song’s origins and performing on the front porch of a house.
It’s not quite what Saulnier anticipated when he signed on for the shoot.
“It is a neat idea for a video,” Saulnier says, over the phone while en route to New Brunswick (the band is currently on tour with Death From Above 1979). “I was just sort of hoping we would make a boring, Canadian, Blue Rodeo video. But those guys forced us to make it interesting, so I guess that’s a good thing.”
While Saulnier didn’t get final say on the video, he did insist on a few modifications before the "Saskatoon" debut. “I was like, can you edit out me saying all that dumb stuff, please? I say dumb stuff all the time.”
On the contrary, the video reveals Saulnier’s gentle side, as he lights up when comparing the vast emptiness of the Prairies to outer space, confiding, “I like being overwhelmed ... I always want to make music that overwhelms people.”
Saulnier says he’s already thinking about new songs and new ways to overwhelm people. After wrapping up this tour next week, the band will head to Japan for a show, then probably return home to work on new material over the winter. But, there’s always the possibility that Death Dreams will spark more videos over the next few months. In fact, Saulnier says they’re already fixed on one song in particular.
“We’ve always wanted to make a video for the song 'Don’t Go,' but we’ve never really been able to get our shit together to do it,” he says. “We have our own ideas, myself and Benjamin — especially Benjamin, who’s a designer, so he has lots of visual ideas — but we’re not video directors so it’s hard for us to do that work ... 'Don’t Go' is like that thing you really want to do, but there are almost too many ideas about it, so it doesn’t happen.”
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