The Making of Overcomplicated by The Keyz

Have you ever wondered how animated movies develop from being a simple idea, to sketches on a piece of paper concluding into these fully animated videos? Well the Piewatch team certainly has! We recently caught up with Nick Murray Willis & Robin Young from The Keyz both the artists involved with the new Overcomplicated video.

Piewatch – How did the idea for Overcomplicated come about, what is the song about?

RY – The song is just about problems that may arise during a relationship, instead of writing a typical love song I decided to do it metaphorically. This is the only song I have ever written on a guitar (mainly because I had no piano at the time) and ironically only has 3 chords – G, C and D – pretty much the only ones I know on the guitar! This song and Don’t Let Go were both written about a girl who I was seeing, who when our relationship ended said “don’t make me laugh with your tales of how successful your band will be because it will never happen” which was nice of her, but should probably be thankful as in the end it inspired the 2 singles.

Piewatch – What made you consider an animated video?

RY - I always wanted an animated video for one of our songs, and when Nick approached me with his ideas I loved it from the start so went ahead with it.

Piewatch – How did the two of you meet?

NMW - Online. I saw them advertising for a video on a message board so checked out they’re myspace and liked what I heard.

Piewatch – How did you get into animation and how would you describe your animated style?

NMW - I always liked to draw when I was growing up, and after I left school I did an art foundation at Norwich Art School. I decided illustration and animation was what I found most exciting and ended up doing a degree in animation at Solent University; despite signing up for illustration and animation, but the course changed during the 1^st year and I had to decide one or the other. The idea of moving art seemed much more appealing to me.

I don’t really know how to describe my style. I try and make all my videos a bit different from each other.

Piewatch – Take us through the process, how do you transfer the ideas from mind to paper to video?

NMW - When I’m doing a music video I tend to listen to the song a few times, listening to the lyrics and mood of the piece, then I write down key words that come across. Once I’ve worked out an idea I normally put together a thumb nail storyboard and then put it to the song, sketch a few characters, try and work out what sort of style I feel would work.

In the video for overcomplicated I drew the characters on paper, some of which I animated on paper and others animated on the computer. The backgrounds were a mix of painting and photo collages, and the sea was generated on the computer. Then it’s just a case of updating the thumb nail pictures with the finished shots and working it to the music.

Piewatch - How many hours were spent making the video?

NMW - I couldn’t give you a number on that but quite a few! I think once I’d worked out the style and idea it was about 4-5 weeks.

Piewatch - Who came up with the excellent storyline to the video?

NMW  – Robin wanted a video with a guy on the beach with the ocean talking to him. He the song was about problems in a relationship so then I just worked the idea from there.

Piewatch – Who is the little white character based on?

NMW – The main character isn’t really based on anyone. He’s just a lonely guy who falls in love!

Piewatch – Might we see a return of these wonderful characters in a future “Keyz” music video?

RY - Haha, not sure, I’m looking at making every video as different as possible to keep a good variety, but who knows!

Piewatch – Final thoughts on its outcome? Are you happy with the finished product?

NMW  - I’m a perfectionist so I’m never 100% happy with any of my films, but I do quite like it. It was a great song to work with.

RY – I am very happy with the final video, the combination of the visuals with the music works perfectly I think

Piewatch – When do you plan on releasing the single?

RY – Overcomplicated will be available from the 3rd of May

Love Nicks work? You can contact him at

http://www.nickmw.com
http://www.myspace.com/nickmwillis