Richmond’s dark power pop band Toward Space summons the spirits of rock and roll in the recently released video for their song “Black Magic”, a psychedelic pop-driven song from their album The Bomb that Fell, released back in March.
The video begins with three women in robes whose faces are obscured and then jumps to vocalist, Seyla Hossaini wearing glittery, mystical looking garb. When the song kicks off, it jumps into shots of an Ouija board. The entire video is centered around something that Hossaini, who directed the video along with Sound of Music Studio’s John Morand, has been captivated with since she was young.
“I had been obsessed with the occult as a child, I used to play with Ouija boards and see/hear ghosts (hence lyrics “footsteps in the attic”), so the song is somewhat of an ode to the times where I believed in magic/kind of evolves into being bewildered by the idea of love or romance and using a childlike mindset of fantasy and magic to guide the difficulties of adult life,” she said.
Singer/Guitarist David Patton only shows up a few times in the trio’s video and is portrayed to be under the sorceress’s spell.
It was sort of amusing to watch as stock footage of a tree being struck by lightning and a house of fire. Specifically, the tree as the large branch that broke off of it somehow ended up under the bridge where it was used when the witchcraft was taking place. It was all fun and the editing style made it work.
“Black Magic” was shot by Nicholas Von Thrower, a local fashion photographer and it was shot in Sound of Music’s warehouse and at a train tunnel behind the studio.
The first half of the video is lighter in direction and is basically a set up for the more sinister, darker tone of the latter side of it. Even on Hossaini’s closes up of her singing, “I fall asleep under you. You know, me, I’ve casted spells,” the air fittingly has a more spooky tinge to it.
Try not to fall under the band’s spells as you dive deep into the song. And keep an eye on RVA Mag for more updates on Toward Space.
