PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
‘Witch Doctor’ is the hypnotic new video from the Dutch purveyors of the finest alternative twisted rock, De Staat. Showcasing Torre Florim’s extraordinary vision, it sees the frontman control an army of looming and fearsome army of bare chested men in a cross between fight club and a hypnotised mosh pit. As the crowd circle him, like a preacher man, he deftly controls them with his words and they proceed to aggressively march around him threatening to explode before he commands them further and it erupts in a consuming typhoon-esque circle pit.
Inspired by ritualistic dancing Torre explains; “I discovered several religious dances, in which the dancers move synchronously. I liked that idea. But the video makers had to invent how to create it all. If you have no Hollywood studio behind you, then it’s just a load of work. But the result is very nice. “
Taken from the homeland #2 charting previous album I_CON, he brought in Studio Smack along with Floris Kaayk, a well-known animator who set up the notorious Bird Man hoax, to bring his idea to life.
The reaction to the video has been incredible, upon its release it became national news in many of the major newspapers, and stations as well as featuring on two of the biggest prime time TV shows De Wereld Draait Door and Pauw in The Netherlands and has now hit nearly 600k views in the last 2 weeks between Youtube and Vimeo. It was selected as an editor’s pick on Vimeo, and 9gag called it “So spookily hypnotic you can’t stop watching”.
The recent cover version of Firestarter by Torre Florim was used in the official trailer for the Playstation 4 game Just Cause 3. The track was of course a huge hit for The Prodigy in 1996 and has lead the band to declare it as the “The best cover ever of one of our songs” and has since had nearly 600k views. No stranger to the world of console games as Down Town, also from I_CON was featured on theFIFA 14 Soundtrack and was performed live and the video recorded in the ‘Goffertstadion’, during the half time break of the football derby match between the hometown N.E.C. Vs Vitesse.
De Staat debuted in 2009 with Wait for Evolution and shortly thereafter performed on all major Dutch stages and festivals such as Lowlands and Pinkpop, and internationally at Sziget and Glastonbury. The album was awarded various prizes, and in 2011 and 2012 the band received a 3FM Award for Best Alternative Act. Second album Machinery was released in 2011. Once again, De Staat toured a large number of European venues and festivals, this time with an extra element added to their live shows: a huge, specially built machine. In 2013 they released I_CON, which was awarded an Edison, Holland’s most prestigious music prize. Late 2013 they played three packed out riotous shows at the Black Heart in London.
De Staat are:
Torre Florim (vocals, guitar),
Jop van Summeren (bass, vocals),
Rocco Heuting (special FX, keys, percussion & vocals),
Vedran Mircetic (guitar)
Tim van Delft (drums).
