WE TALK TO FATAL FARM'S JEFFREY MAX TO KNOW MORE ABOUT JOHN MAYER'S NEW LIGHT VIDEO.

 In 2018, John Mayer released the song New Light. The track, with 80s influences and great synths, sounded funky pop and different to his previous work. As he said on Twitter, he had some disagreements on the budget for the music video. The final result was a funny video shot completely by Fatal Farm on greenscreen using common images and enjoying John's sense of humor. 

Jeffrey Max of Fatal Farm, director and creator of the video,  took some time to chat about the making of the video and the inspiration behind it:

What inspired you for the video? How the song inspired to create the music video?

'John approached us with the idea of a "mall kiosk" style video. The kind of novelty video that anyone could walk up and pay for. He knew he wanted to do the whole thing on greenscreen and let us just find the best moments in the edit. The song is a reflection on getting older and changing, but the video idea seemed very rooted in the sloppiness of youth. That juxtaposition helped inform the rough, unpolished look of the video. There was a freedom in embracing childishness. And we were able to showcase John's sense of humor and ability to poke fun at himself. I think he literally wanted to be seen in a new light, as on the nose as that is'.

How did John Mayer reach out to you?

'I'd met John a couple times through a mutual friend who'd shown him some of our previous work. When he decided he wanted to do something that was all greenscreen, he reached out via text. It was very casual, and not at all how music videos normally happen. It was a very easy process. John and his representation were really open to letting us just run with the idea. They gave us very few notes, and were incredibly supportive'.

By your work on two Major Lazer songs ('Keep It Goin' Louder' and 'Pon de Floor') it's shown that you have used the chroma before. Was the use, in this one, casual or John Mayer wanted to use it? Did he come up with a formed idea of what he wanted for the video?

'John sent a voice memo describing the concept of doing the whole thing on greenscreen. The timeline was very tight, but he explained that he wanted it to feel amateurish. So, the process of editing the whole thing and sort of simultaneously keying the footage and dropping in backgrounds was not at all linear. We shot with John for only a few hours, and there was a lot of riffing regarding his body movements and performance. The challenge afterwards was to try and build something entertaining that could escalate for nearly four minutes. But I think the time pressure allowed us to make big decisions quickly just to meet the deadline'.

Looking back, what do you think makes New Light's video special?

'Looking back, I think it's immensely satisfying that so many people have seen it and enjoyed something that was thrown together on a whim. A lot of our projects require months of preparation and planning, and this was the exact opposite. John reached out on a Friday, and we were shooting with him the next day. To turn something around so quickly was fun and freeing, and to have the trust of such a big name in music was rewarding and kind of astonishing. There aren't many artists who are willing to be the butt of their own joke. A lot of music videos try so hard to be cool or overly sexy, and I think New Light is special and fairly refreshing because it doesn't try to do any of that'.

The video has more than 70 million views on YouTube. Did you think the video would have that impact?

'Honestly, no. We knew John has an enormous fan base, but we weren't sure how the video was going to be received by his fans or the general public. We would have been proud of it either way, but it's nice that so many people have watched. And I'm probably biased, but I think it's one of John's catchiest songs so that certainly helps. Overall, the whole thing was just a fun experience from beginning to end, and that's pretty rare'.

Maybe, the key of its success is on not being pretentious. That humbleness covers and envelopes the whole video. The use of common images, closer to homemade videos, made it connect with the people . However, the magic is also on being loyal to the original idea (make it feel amateurish ) and to the song. Again, visual art and music go together, in no separate ways.