"Do you stay true to you?" Lead singer, Ashi Dala, sings these lyrics as she takes us into a trance with her sultry psychedelic vocals. This controversial video between art and expression leaves us with a big message -- As Luka Fisher and Matthew Kaundart would say, "a spotlight on the dissonance between art and the oftentimes ugly process behind its creation."
Paint and naked bodies -- how could you not love the new HOTT MT music video. The bands new video "Starheart" is a must see. Directed by Matthew Kaundart, cinematography by Antonio Cisneros, and produced by Luka Fisher. Luka also created all the art for this video as well as making a cameo in it too.
Luka is an artist known for pushing the boundaries. In his interview and write up with Soundvision, he spoke on how he felt creatively which really touched me. "This appealed to me because I have been very upset by social media and the arbitrary boundaries that it places on art and our bodies. For instance, it is acceptable for me to post nude drawings and paintings but unacceptable to post nude photographs. I find these rules offensive both because they perpetuate our fear of the human body and its processes and because these rules privilege historical methods of art production while ignoring what has happened within painting and the broader art world over the past 100 years. So, with this series I am trying to both point out the arbitrary nature of Facebook/Instagram's rules which prioritize certain kinds of art and expression over others and to expose the basic ass puritanical assumptions about the art and body that inform these rules. Anyways... as I began developing this body of work, "Life Studies", another friend and frequent collaborator Matthew Kaundart suggested that we integrate these images into a music video for HOTT MT."
I find this video to be such a statement and movement between the band, Luka and within the whole art world. Along with HOTT MT and Luka Fisher, there were a few other very important artists in this video including dominatrix Sheree Rose, queer video artist Peter Kalisch, conceptual stripper Kayla Tange, insult poet Tristene Roman, musician Dove Ayinde and performance poet Sarah Gail Armstrong, as well as porn stars Danny Wylde and Arabelle Raphael.
"Starheart" is one of the first singles off their new album out this Spring on Mutation Rectords called "Alternative Universe."
