We Are Temporary
We Are Temporary’s Mark Roberts performing at Nothing Changes; photographed by Nikki Sneakers.
Featured off the debut We Are Temporary album Crossing Over released via German imprint Trisol, frontman Mark Roberts (who also runs the Stars & Letters imprint) proudly presents the world premiere of the emotionally evocative & moody video for “Prism”. Reinterpreted from the ESNAF creative commons short film The Long Haul, we follow a derelict protagonist making her way across the universe, living between cigarette drags and purloined provisions and libations. Roberts’ single “Prism” is heard like a shining diamond slowly rotating it’s many facets of opaque luster that is designed like a cinematic score that provides exposition to the emotional & introspective head spaces & thought zones that depict a shaky uncertainty & vulnerability.
“Prism” is the quintessential We Are Temporary sound & style that divulges the fragile nature of the human condition in a manner of honesty that does away with the pretension to portray inner expressions through a severe sort of sentimentality that marries both the ephemeral & asphalt worlds together. Mark makes synth pop symphonies that adhere to human experiences with one set on the tangible earth of the temporal with the other stepping toward the great mystery of what tomorrow may hold. The continuum between the moment of now and the far off feeling of the future become exploded into a thought space that Roberts further illuminates in the video edit that places emphases on the weather patterns that surround the journeys of our heroine on the run. We see attempted hitch-hike travels, and arid desert wandering beneath the wild nebulous cloud formations. The ambient aspects of “Prism” contributes further to the vast terrain seen in the video, where we watch our wayward runaway shoplift her way to survival, to soaking whirlwind fears of worry with a bottle of Jack, chain smoking rituals, inspired dance moves, & waiting by the telephone in a cheap motel room. As our lead femme takes to the open highway roads with determination & an edge of destitution; we see the overhead convection cycles billowing & moving like an ambiguous answer seen high in the sky. With a sense of a future that is felt & seen as being open ended & far from finite, the vast landscapes of natural & concrete laden earth beckons for the chapters & books that are yet unwritten and/or realized. Be sure to read our following insightful discussion with We Are Temporary’s own Mark Roberts.
Describe how the completion of your recent album Crossing Over released on the German imprint Trisol has continued to effect you.
I think one of the coolest things that’s happened as a result of putting out Crossing Over is that Germany’s cult goth label, Trisol, invited me to sign a record deal with them. It’s a real honor to be part of their family, as they’ve released some of the biggest names in the scene….Project Pitchfork, Emilie Autumn, Dope Stars Inc., ASP, London After Midnight, Clan of Xymox, and many more. It’s kind of a dream, really.
Tell us about the creation of the video for “Prism”, and how the narrative of following a young drifting heroine came about who appears to be chasing as the lyrics state a “future that is too far away”.
The video is a reinterpretation of a creative commons short film called The Long Haul, directed by ESNAF. And I’m so glad you bring up that lyric! Even before I started editing the film, I felt like the song and visuals told a similar story—a story that orbits around the line: “a future that’s too far away”. One of the things I love so much about the original short film is that it’s never clear if our drifting heroine is running away from something, or running toward something (or someone). In other words, what I find so magnetic about the story isn’t what’s shown, but what’s hidden from us.
When it came down to editing, one of the things I noticed was how present the weather felt to me. It was almost like the weather was its own character, and so I wanted to flesh that out more in my video by interspersing the original footage with a variety of nature and weather shots that I thought helped visualize the girl’s emotional state of mind.
In the end I utilized footage from more than 20 different sources, but after what seemed like an eternity of editing, the video and song ended up forming an incredibly intimate symbiosis.
We Are Temporary’s Mark Roberts; photographed by Nikki Sneakers.
What for you was the inspiration for the awe-striking & ominous synth bathed track “Prism” to begin with?
Echoes of true love…futility…not giving up.
As someone who has made such a plethora of remixes, what have you discovered about yourself as an artist through those processes?
I think the biggest lesson remixing tough me is that I don’t have to box myself into a genre, a sound, or a certain way of doing things. Remixing songs from all sorts of genres kind of set me free from my own prejudices and habits. My first instinct, for example, is always to micro-manage my own sound and curate my songs with a very heavy hand—it’s like a form of aesthetic OCD—but remixes created safe spaces for me to just have fun, experiment, and follow my whims. Eventually I realized that I could have just as much fun with my own music, be just as free, and venture down all sorts of new paths without worrying about whether it’s We Are Temporary enough.
Breaking through the temporal veil with We Are Temporary; photographed by Nikki Sneakers.
Tell us everything that we should know about the next We Are Temporary release.
It’s going to be way more colorful and changeable. I’ve always drawn inspiration from diverse influences, but this time you’ll hear them come through more distinctly. Some songs are positively electro-pop, some are noir techno, some incorporate world music elements (a dutar from Tajikistan, lots of polyrhythmic percussion from Africa and the Middle East), one whereas one song’s melody is based on a minimalist composition by Michael Nyman, another tis based on a harmonic progression by Arvo Part. In short: it’s going to be an adventure!
Saint of synths—We Are Temporary; photographed by Nikki Sneakers.
With our nation and the world in the middle of what feels like the end of the world, what sorts of meditations, prayers of peace, and more can you leave us with?
Lots of human beings are suffering around the world right now. Lots of people are angry. Angry at political parties, at candidates, at cops, at not having water, of not being treated as an equal, angry at bombs dropped from the sky, and angry at bombs triggered chest-high. The world is overflowing with injustices, and people everywhere, to the best of their abilities, are trying to air their grievances, protest, and push back.
To fight back is important, but one thing that’s been on my mind a lot as of late is this: I’m worried that all of us are so consumed by our specific grievances, that we’re loosing our ability and will to dream big as one society and species.
Of course, Trump’s a swine. And yes, Hillary is sketchy. But when you’re at home, by yourself just staring out the window, not arguing with other people or writing posts on social media, when you have nothing to prove to anyone else: what is it you see when you imagine a truly beautiful, enlightened society? What are you capable of imaging when no one can shout down your vision as unrealistic? What do you really wish humanity could become, when history is muted for a moment?
Whatever it is you dream about in those silent moments, never be too embarrassed to talk to other people about it, never be too embarrassed to fight for that vision, as well.
We Are Temporary’s album Crossing Over is available now from Trisol.
