Rubberband Reflects on Time and Transformation in Fred Again Video Trilogy

There is something quietly radical about slowing time down. In an era shaped by constant motion—scrolling, swiping, accelerating—Rubberband chose to expand 10 to 13 seconds of real time into three and a half minutes of suspended intensity.

 

The result is a trilogy of music videos for three singles from Fred again..’s album USB—“HARDSTYLE 2,” “scared,” and “Lights Burn Dimmer”—transforming fleeting moments into immersive emotional landscapes. Across the three films, a single night unfolds in microscopic detail. Small gestures are given room to breathe. A glance lingers. A pulse stretches. Extreme slow motion becomes less a technical device and more a psychological one, inviting viewers to sit inside a feeling rather than rush past it. Working in close collaboration with Fred Again, the directing duo—comprised of Jason Filmore Sondock and Simon Davis—pursued emotional honesty over spectacle, crafting images that echo the interior reverberations of the music itself.

Though each installment required distinct crews, camera systems, and technical approaches, the trilogy maintains a cohesive emotional arc. What changes is not the scale of the world, but the scale of feeling. Represented by the award-winning global production house Smuggler, Rubberband continues to explore how time, intimacy, and experimentation can reshape the language of music film.

Below, the duo reflects on collaboration, creative restraint, and the art of slowing down.

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TEETH: The music video trilogy stretches 10 to 13 seconds of real time into three and a half minutes through extreme slow motion. What made you want to build a narrative inside that constraint?

Rubberband: I think there’s a lot of anxiety around the shrinking of human attention spans. So much of what we experience, particularly through phones and screens, speeds time up. There was something meaningful to us about attempting to do the opposite. To allow beauty and complexity and feeling to emerge from living within time in a suspended way. Hopefully, in presenting something people see themselves in, albeit differently, we mirror the effect Fred’s music has on our inner world.

“HARDSTYLE 2,” “scared,” and “Lights Burn Dimmer” each feel emotionally distinct. When you think about Brandon across all three, what shifts for him from the first video to the last?

We really enjoyed mapping out an emotional progression for Brandon across the three films. There are many ways to understand the journey of a night out—energetically, emotionally, chemically—but however you frame it, there’s beauty in ending the night changed. The musical progression inspired how Brandon’s experience evolves: confronting fear, yearning for someone, and surrendering to a wild impulse. Rather than a dramatic transformation, we were drawn to something smaller and more truthful. An emotional shift is unfolding over a single night.

You’ve said Fred’s music feels cinematic, and that pairing fast songs with slow images creates a kind of memory effect. What was the first creative spark between you and Fred, and how did the collaboration evolve?

Working with Fred and Lucy was refreshing because of how deeply they cared about honesty. We presented many ideas before arriving at the three you see. Through iteration, it became clear they weren’t chasing something impressive or cool, but something emotionally honest. It was rewarding to question ideas deeply together in such a collaborative way.

Each installment is its own technical feat. How do you keep the emotional core intact when production varies so much?

We don’t think in terms of maintaining control so much as operating in service of the feeling we’re trying to create. With collaborators like cinematographers Ryan Marie Helfant and Oli Millar, we make decisions aligned with that intention. Sometimes that requires highly technical or unusual solutions, but all of it exists to capture and communicate a specific emotion.

Your work spans music, fashion, and narrative film. What excites you most, and what does film allow you to express that other mediums can’t?z