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Professor Green, Zane Lowe & Pure Love star in the latest TV ad from Energy Drink Relentless, directed by Ross Cairns, which takes us on an exploration of “Music That Matters”.
The advert, filmed in London and New York during moments of inspiration and creation, follows the artists through the process of creating and playing their music.
Relentless’ creative director, Ross Cairns explains how he managed to capture the raw musical process when directing the advert.
This wasn’t shot like most ads. It was a lot more time consuming and lengthy than that for all involved. We took a documentary approach, just spending time with the artists over a period of months, both in the UK and US, witnessing the creative process as it unfolded. We got to see what the artist experiences.
I’m fortunate in that I have strong existing relationship with the artists having worked with them all before. This mutual trust was important to removing any self-consciousness that would normally get in the way of the creative process.”
The iconic ad marks the beginning of a year of collaborative projects involving these artists and Relentless and reflects the brand’s commitment to support energetic, intense and authentic music that shares their “no half measures” attitude.
I caught up with Relentless artists Pure Love to speak with them about their involvement with the project and making the ad. The opening shot sees the heavily tattooed Pure Love lead singer Frank Carter, sat in front of the iconic painting of St. Sebastian in the National Gallery. I asked him why they chose that painting for that shot. “St. Sebastian is one of my favourite subjects in 15th Century art, the martyrdom of the saint with arrows shot at him for sticking to what he believed in – it’s vicious, it’s powerful, and it’s beautiful as well,” Frank tells me.
The band have worked with Ross Cairns before and said that the opportunity to spend more time with him and work on something new was the main reason why they got involved, Frank explains: “He did all of our music videos, and when he suggested it, we jumped at the chance to work with him again.” But working with Zane Lowe and Professor Green also drew Pure Love into the mix. “Zane is a big guy in music you know, I grew up watching him, and Professor Green has exploded and now he’s growing steadily, but the key thing is that they both really care about music,” Frank says. The other half of Pure Love, James Carroll agreed and added: “That’s the whole point at the end of the day, that’s what this is about; the music.”
Speaking about why he’s happy to work with Relentless, Frank said: “They [Relentless] are brand that are willing to support music, completely. It’s so rare to find a brand that’s willing not only to put money in, but to support you as an artist and not ask you to change or to be a certain way, but just to carry on doing what you do.”
Three documentaries featuring some of the clips seen in the ad, following the in-depth creative process of each of the artists will be related later this year, so keep an eye out for those and other Relentless activities with Pure Love, Zane Lowe and Professor Green by following @RelentlessDrink.
