As autumn continues to linger, so do the hauntings, gloom, and chill of the season. As an appropriate soundtrack, British-American electronic music duo Ready, Steady, Die! released their bone-chilling new single and accompanying music video entitled "Darkstar."
Comprising New York-based Morgan Visconti and London-based Sam K, Ready, Steady, Die! has been flying high since the release of their 2022 album, Accidents. It was a perfect showcase of the duo's near-telepathic musical interplay with a conceptual lyricism that leaves you aching for more.
Thankfully, they gave us more. Ready, Steady, Die!'s recently single and music video for "Deathstar" is quite the eerie thrill—horror fanatics will know what I mean. It perfectly represents the darkness, chilling tales, and haunting sensations felt and experienced as we shift into the dark part of the year. Undoubtedly, Ready, Steady, Die! gives us the perfect sound to match the moment.
The single "Deathstar" tracks the story of a serial killer through the soothing vocals of Sam K, conveying chilling scenes of her post-mortem thoughts while wishing she could have avoided the tragedies that occurred. The haunting and ghostly production from Morgan Visconti quakes the song with a grim darkness that leaves us crawling with goosebumps.
Impressively, the music video for "Darkstar," directed by WeekendClass, is among the first AI-generated music videos to date. The animated clip's collection of AI images grips the viewer into Victorian-era shots, hinting at the tale of Jack the Ripper. The frightening and eerie images follow the song's melancholy lyrics, prompting an uncomfortable yet captivating horror-induced thrill perfect for the season.
Give yourself a new soundtrack for the remaining autumn season with Ready, Steady, Die!'s latest single, "Darkstar," and the song's accompanying music video. Find the video on YouTube and the single on all digital streaming platforms.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Ready, Steady, Die! We love the eerie and conceptual tale within your new single and music video for "Darkstar." What inspired you to create a song about a serial killer?
Sam: Thank you for your lovely comments. How Morgan and I work is one of us will come up with an idea, and the other one runs with it and takes it to the next stage. Morgan sent me this track as a piece of music. He called it Darkstar as a working title. But as the leading lyric writer for RSD, I felt immediately that it had to be about a dark soul and his title inspired the concept.
What was your experience working with director WeekendClass for the "Darkstar" AI-generated music video? What was that unique process like?
Morgan: Full disclosure: WeekendClass is my director's alter ego. When I’m not working on music, I’m dicking around with Houdini (motion graphics software) and experimental image processing. The mid-journey has only become popular in the last few months, and it immediately presented itself as a medium for my vision – a druggy, painterly, Victorian gothic thriller. Half of the video is made with soft, inky images from Mid journey. The other rapid, morphing faces and exteriors/interiors were done using Stable Diffusion. Both resources are in a very exciting phase of constant development as features got added, so the video evolved. It would be great to work with a production company one day, but one nice aspect of working by yourself is you can drop into an experimental k-hole for a week without accountability to anyone.
What did you want the visual for "Darkstar" to make viewers think and feel? Did you want the AI-generated images to convey a sense of uncomfort?
Sam: Oh, we’re always looking for ways to make the viewer have a sense of unease. The song is a dark subject matter, and the video absolutely needed to reflect that. Morgan: I had to pull back from making it pure horror (which would be pretty effortless with AI). I wanted the unease to come from the innocence of the settings being slightly off-kilter.
Is your duo familiar with creating horror-themed songs similar to "Darkstar"? Is this a common theme for you two?
Morgan: ‘Horror’ is an escape from the real-life horrors we witness every day. Case in point – Darkstar speaks to something very sinister that happens today – and we set it in Victorian times to make it less grisly and confrontational. My favorite horror films are also the ones with beautiful cinematography and soundtracks – Annihilation, It Follows, and Mandy. We certainly would love to collaborate on a horror film soundtrack.