Mason London reimagines Dream Wife as dystopian robots in new animated video

Mason London has applied his animating skills to the latest single, Hey! Heartbreaker by London-based band, Dream Wife. Recognised for their lively performances, the illustrator, otherwise known as Joe Prytherch, has reimagined the band’s three members as robots, inspired by 1988 Japanese science fiction film, Akira.

“When I heard Hey! Heartbreaker for the first time I loved the energy in the band’s performance which seemed to just build and build,” Joe tells It’s Nice That. “I liked the idea of making a video where someone was trying to contain this energy at the beginning of the song but then it inevitably breaks free.”

The illustrator and animator does this by creating a narrative where Dream Wife are robotic band playing repeatedly in a bar. The venue is full of subtle hints to Dream Wife’s previous releases, such as posters with their single titles, which fans of the band are already pointing out on YouTube comments. The band are protected behind a laser-like red beam keeping them separate from the audience, which soon breaks, setting the band free to escape on flying cars. “I thought the style of the three band members was already super cool and futuristic so that just kind of led to me doing something set in a dystopian future — and I really love the film Akira,” Joe explains.

Portraying the band’s stage persona in a animated style, and recreating them as robots, Joe admits was one of the hardest parts of the animation project. “I had to watch videos of past performances, then create a basic animated 3D model of each of them, then trace frame by frame over that model,” he says. “It was kinda arduous doing the whole thing myself, but really exciting as I finished each of the animation loops and got to watch the robots come to life.”

On the illustrators futuristic and dystopian representation of them, Dream Wife says: “We were super excited to work with Mason London to bring the world of Hey! Heartbreaker to life…It’s uncanny to watch these mechanical, parallel versions of ourselves rock out and then break out. We like to think that in another reality our robot versions are continuing their adventures; perhaps in the forest, perhaps plotting for a robot revolution, perhaps playing wild, secret rock shows to other robos.”