Making Art … “When We’re Together”

In the official music video you can watch us create a unique painting with dozens of pedestrians on the streets of London More specifically, it was done in Camden, the art district of the city, which was the perfect place for a creative project like this. In the making-of video we show you a bit more of the ins and outs of setting up this project.

We had come up with the idea for the video only a few days before shooting it. We were in London at the time, filming a whole bunch of other videos (“I Don’t Know Birds That Well” and “Dreams“) when the question came up about possible visual ideas for the song “When We’re Together”.

We definitely knew we wanted to involve a lot of other people and create something “together”, so the idea of making a giant piece of art just seemed absolutely perfect. We chose to do the filming in Camden Town, a very vibrant and artsy part of London, filled with markets, music venues and friendly people. We had played there a few times before and it struck us as the perfect place for what we were planning to do.

“Papa” Rudi and Michaela set off to get some art supplies while we prepared things at home. A few days later, our car crammed with two big canvases, lots of plastic covers and paint brought us to Camden without spilling anything!

We picked a nice spot at the “Stable Markets” walls and prepared the place:

We made sure to cover everything up with plastic to avoid a big mess by the end of the shoot and finally mounted a camera on a street pole opposite the canvas.

The rest of what happened you are pretty much able to watch from start to end in the finished video:

We didn’t cut out any parts, we simply just sped up the footage that was rolling for the whole 4-5 hours and cut in come close-up shots.

The whole day was such a positive experience. Not only did we create a fantastic piece of art with the help of hundreds of people, we also got a great video out of it and most importantly – we felt like we brightened up a lot of people’s days. Nearly everyone walking by gave us at least a smile, and many of them contributed themselves for a few minutes. Even the policemen were amused watching from further afar.

We were very happy and exhausted by the end of it!

At the end of the day we cleaned up, then let the painting dry while we were going for a Chinese dinner with some friends across the street. We kept an eye on the canvases from the restaurant window, and it just looked fantastic, brightening up the whole street in the evening light.

We finally dismantled the painting and took it back home to Austria where we thought of things we could do with it. It seemed to be a waste just having the canvas rolled up in a corner. Besides, it seemed only right to pass it on to someone and to keep sharing it with the world.

An American fan who proved himself to become one of our biggest fans, supporters and by now friends, ended up buying it and putting it up in his office. His name is Steve, and we couldn’t think of a better person to take care of the painting now!

When We’re Together … everything’s alright!

Thanks to you all, to everyone reading, to everyone in the video, to Steve, to our friends and family and to everyone who’s trying to make the world a little more peaceful and more … together.

One bit at a time.

Stay groovy,
Mona & Lisa