Crack Stevens and Mason London’s unlikely heroine returns in Pheromones video

Animation and directorial duo Crack Stevens and Mason London have launched the video for Franc Moody’s Pheromones, a prequel to its first for the band, Super Star Struck. The original video starred an unlikely heroine, a working black mother superhero, flying around London “performing socialist miracles”. This latest collaboration, instead, sees the character swimming around the underwater world of Atlantis, trying to cheer up a mopey population.

Trudging to work, picking up newspapers bearing inevitably sad news, the background characters in Pheromones are unhappy about their state of affairs, Crack Stevens (aka Akinola Davies) explains. “Our protagonist tried her hardest to make people enjoy the little things in life. For me, it’s important to project positivity through depicting characters who aren’t often shown to be as extraordinary as they really are.”

Stylistically it continues the first video from the duo, channelling this message of positivity and human connection through a “colourful, cartoony aesthetic” says Mason London (Joe Prytherch). “It was really fun illustrating the underwater world, particularly thinking about all the different types of motion you have down there, from the jellyfish that look like they’re suspended in time to the rhythmic swimming of the dolphins.

At the end, the heroine succeeds, and the video ends with a group dance sequence. This is Joe’s highlight: “I find something quite satisfying about having everything moving in unison perfectly in time to the music, a bit like a cartoon version of an old Hype Williams video.”