Behind The Scenes: CHÜZO - Brutalator (Lyric Video)

When I was editing the lyric video for "The Brutalator" I was playing around with an idea that Cris had thrown at me about incorporating some Japanese animation footage into our videos. More and more, the clips in my collection that could suggest the themes of "revenge", "violence", "antihero" pushed me into constructing the story behind the Brutalator in a live action superhero style, very reminiscent of the shows I grew up with in Brazil such as Jiraya, Jaspion and Changeman, to name a few. I thought it would be super cool to incorporate visual effects from the 80s era, such as the lightning, fireballs, energy rays, tape effects, and everything else you see in the video. Even the color of the lyrics to the music is suggestive of the yellow subtitles from back then. I gave our antihero a background story; he is shown as an orphan and then as a child who grows up in poverty and gets fed up with the social injustice around him. All this is set to the "lullaby for the dead" intro to the song, and as we transition to the opening riffs, we learn that he has the power to bring forth change. It is not yet clear to him or to the listener what kind of power this is but as we progress through the first part of the song we see his transformation and "antihero" journey, and then we follow him on his quest to right the wrongs and bring "brutal social justice" in different cities and remote villages. All this as the intensity in the music builds up and culminates in the gritty guitar solo that acts like the climax and denouement. Then we are left with the closing shot of the Brutalator who has now found his purpose as his so-called weaknesses are transformed into his strengths. I'd like to think that part of his powers are his own and part of it is supernatural, but I'll leave it up to interpretation. In CHÜZO, our approach is to be more descriptive than prescriptive when writing and it would be no different in our videos. Sometimes I like to think that the Brutalator's journey is a parallel to our own journey as musicians, working our skills and talents and then spreading our message to folks around the world. Decades after watching those live action shows as a kid, the feeling of anxiety to do the right thing remains ingrained in us as adults. We had our relatable character and universal message and hopefully I could translate some of that into a lyric video that is nostalgic and reminds you of the first time you put on a superhero cape as a kid and felt invincible.