Black Sisyphus - Part 2
Interview with artist YuNg NuaNce about the music video "F. MARS"
Artist Interview below video recap:
Throughout 2024, I collaborated with artist YuNg NuaNce (Anthony Stephenson) on a music video for his song “Fuck Mars.” It took nearly a year to produce, from the conception and writing stage to production and post-production.
You can read my first post about this project here.
We began planning in January 2024, building the framework for a simple visual story of endless repetition. The Greek myth of Sisyphus was our springboard. He is the guy condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder up a hill every day only to have it roll back down again.
I can’t think of a better metaphor for life on Earth. Or the film business!
We then combined Sisyphus with a dash of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, who rails against society's cruelty and deterministic thinking.
“Go to Mars, go to Mars, I don’t wanna go to Mars,” our Future Underground Man chants.
Recently, Mars has been held up as a Utopia for earthlings to escape the bounds of Earth and the oppression of climate change. In Dostoevsky’s novella, the narrator contemplates how a utopia can negate suffering and pain, but it never works because people need the full spectrum of emotions to be happy.
We can’t all fly away from our problems and settle elsewhere in the universe without some bad side effects.
No matter how much YuNg NuaNce doesn’t want to go to mars, he can’t help himself. In the video, he plays a blue-collar protagonist with limitless tasks, pushing aging technology through endless underground tunnels.
To alleviate boredom, he imagines himself floating through space on his way to Mars and space-surfing on a Cybertruck, eventually arriving at the red planet.
Sounds like fun, but wherever he goes, he’s still alone.
WTF-Stop INTERVIEW - YuNg NuaNce
WTFStop: So, do you want to go to Mars?
YN: Hard no. I have nothing against Mars, the planet. I'm a big space nerd, and it would be great to explore other galaxies, but that’s just not possible now.
I think we should focus on making this planet and the people on it the best it can be, and then eventually, when technology allows, we can go out into space.
So for now Fuck Mars!
WTFStop: What was the inspiration behind writing “Fuck Mars”? Were there any surprises along the way?
YN: The two biggest and most obvious inspirations for “Fck MaRs” is Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon” and a pre-nazi Kanye West’s “Spaceships”. All three pieces of art share a similar sentiment. A more direct inspiration would be the beat tag at the beginning, which I thought said “Mars” but later on found out said “Raj,” the name of the producer of the beat.
WTFStop: What science fiction has inspired you? Books? Movies?
YN: Oh man, too many to list here, but the big ones would be Twilight Zone, Hyperion, Cantos Series, Dune (book and movie), Three Body Problem, Arrival, etc etc.… lol. We could be here all day, lol.
WTFStop: Did you collaborate with a producer to bring it all together?
YN: The beat was sent to me by long-time friend and collaborator Rajiv aka GoldFace. I wrote the song in about an hour. It’s funny cause the song is almost 4-5 years old at this point but becomes more relevant every day with things coming out of the White House.
WTFStop: After completing the song, how does it feel to visualize and produce a video?
YN: It feels good to work with you again, Alan, and I couldn’t be more appreciative of you taking an interest in seeing this particular song visualized.
WTFStop: What was the biggest surprise that came from making the video?
YN: How long and painstaking the editing process can be. I mix my music, and that can be intense, but editing video files is a whole different beast. I enjoy the entire process.
WTFStop: What is your hope for the song?
YN: I hope the song and the subsequent album reach as many people as possible who feel the same as I do about the current state of the world for workers like myself.
WTFStop: What is your hope for humanity?
YN: I have a longer answer for this, but for the sake of brevity, I will say survival and eventual expansion, with a big emphasis on survival.
WTFStop: Thank you.
Besides finding the best editing rhythms and performances for “F. Mars," the biggest challenge was creating the story on a green screen without a server farm or a dedicated effects person! I’ve always been a self-taught compositor, starting with a few lessons from a music video director I used to shoot for, so it’s been a learn as I go approach.
Making music videos and effects work has become easier over the years as technology improvements have democratized computer magic. Still, nothing takes the place of inspiration and dedication to creative drudgery.
Always be learning new skills or trying new approaches. Make mistakes.
