Behind the Video: Frayle Guitarist Sean Bilovecky Discusses what Makes a Great Music Video

After impressing on the international festival scene, FRAYLE released their latest album, Heretics & Lullabies, last month via Napalm Records. For years, the Cleveland, Ohio band has been praised for their unique take on heavy metal, incorporating a doom metal sound with the accessibility of arena rock.

Any listener of doom, post-metal, or heavy alternative rock will find something to enjoy on this record. If you’re a bona fide, devoted metalhead, you’ll love it. But if you’re a more casual fan of hard music, you’ll also feel quite positive about your listening experience. The band likes to take risks, too, by operating outside of their comfort zone. Heretics & Lullabies features a cover of the Lana Del Rey song “Summertime Sadness.” That’s not exactly a risk you’d expect from a heavy metal band, but FRAYLE are more than happy to avoid such preconceptions.

FRAYLE have also become renowned for their elaborate, cinematic visuals, both in a live setting and via their music videos. They recently released the official video for the single “Heretic.” We are joined today by guitarist Sean Bilovecky for a Behind the Video interview for a chat about her views on modern music videos.

Which statement seems most true to you: Music videos are a “high” form of art; music videos are a “low” form of art; music videos can be “high” or “low” art; it doesn’t matter, all art is art; it doesn’t matter, nothing really matters.

Sean Bilovecky: “I never really liked the idea of ‘high’ art or ‘low’ art. I think that any time you can get your emotions out and expressed in a way that touches someone, it’s art. Whether that ‘someone’ is you, your aunt or millions of people, I still think it’s art. I don’t know why people get so hung up on labels. People sometimes use labels to put others in corners or to be able to dismiss what they do. It’s all valid.”

Did one of your favourite artists ever put out a music video you felt wasn’t as good as the music? Which one?

“We love Chelsea Wolfe. We think her music is absolutely brilliant and that she is one of the best vocalists of our generation; however, her videos never really live up to the music. You can tell that there is a budget there to do something with, but you never get sucked in and want to watch the video over and over. There is definitely some beautiful imagery, but it doesn’t ‘lift off the screen.’”

What should a music video set out to accomplish? Do you feel like yours did that?

“We feel like a music video should create a world for you to be lured into. The best videos are the ones that you want to watch time and again. It’s always been our goal to give the audience a glimpse into our world and invite them to spend some time with us. Hopefully, we accomplish that at least sometimes.”

How important a role does social media play in sharing videos and increasing exposure?

“Social media plays a very important role in exposure for your videos. Everyone is on social media, and fortunately or unfortunately, you really need to be able to market yourself through these platforms. Luckily, it has become very easy to edit and share your clips on these platforms, and if you ever choose to pay for ads, you can do so quite inexpensively. I think we tried it a couple of times early on, and it didn’t really work for us, but we had no clue what we were doing. If you use it properly, I think it can be a powerful tool.”

Frayle ‘Heretics & Lullabies’ album artwork

If money were no issue, what would be in your perfect video?

“All of the money would be spent on fog and lighting! We’re always impressed by cinematic features that have the budget to go above and beyond with lighting. The burning church from 1917. Enormous lighting rigs used in Nope. Entire woodlands of fields filled with fog. Just letting us do our thing in those environments to make our world feel huge on screen would be perfect!”

If you could get one guest to be in one of your videos, who would it be? Why?

“We have always talked about how incredible it would be to get Fairuza Balk from The Craft to be in one of our videos. She is one of the OG ‘witches of the screen.’ Having her interact with Gwyn or the band would be insane. Who knows, maybe we’ll pull this off someday.”

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever had to do or seen being done during the making of a music video?

“We tend to shoot in locations that are in a state of, shall we say, disrepair. This means lots of dirt, unstable floors, falling debris, etc. You definitely have to watch where you are walking. Our favourite location so far is the infamous House of Wills in Cleveland. It’s an old funeral home that is simply epic. The room where they used to inter the bodies is pretty gnarly. There is also a room where the earliest version of the female Freemasons would meet.”

Which band or artist do you think had the greatest music videos?

“I’m not sure about the ‘greatest of all time,’ but I really like the Rammstein video for ‘Deutschland.’ Talk about cinematic. The colour grading, sets, costumes, etc. It’s just amazing. On the other end of the spectrum, I think King Woman’s video for ‘Morning Star’ is incredible. It’s a single take of her in a warehouse with the camera circling her on tracks. Her performance is incredible.”

What’s your favourite thing about music videos?

“It has to be the editing. Filming is super stressful. Carrying gear up and down decrepit steps is scary. Making sure the generators don’t run out of gas is stressful. Once all shooting is wrapped, and all that hard work is on one tiny hard drive, the real fun begins. I love going through all of the footage and putting the story together in the comfort of our studio. It beats the heck out of getting bitten by bugs and sweating our ass off.”