Joe Taylor’s the ringleader of the playful indie rock band Kid Scientist, a group offering up their own take on Valentine’s Day with a newly released video for the song “The Ballad of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch,” a reference to the Austrian writer.
Jokes Taylor, “Valentine’s Day just seemed like the perfect time to offer loving tribute to both the father of masochism and boos everywhere.”
Of late, Kid Scientist has continually reinvented events. At Off Broadway, for example, they took over the entire space, using actors, props, and other devices to create “the immersive release show” of their EP, A Report from the Future. This was followed by an ambitious rock opera at Foam, Faust: go down with all the re$t. And now: a video with no small amount of components and collaborators, co-directed by Taylor and Lucy Cashion.
“One of the biggest obstacles for me, personally,” Taylor says, “has always been scaling my ideas down into producible things. I’m lucky to be at a point now where a lot of times I can at least say, 'OK, what actually isn’t possible about this idea?' instead of 'What is?' Working with Lucy Cashion and ERA has definitely helped in that department. If you’ve ever seen or been a part of any ERA productions, you know what I mean. There were a number of aspects of this project that probably shouldn’t have been possible, like learning Claire and Jeff’s amazing choreography 30 minutes before cameras started rolling. Everyone who was a part of this project shows up 200 f***ing percent, though, so this vid is also a love letter to them.”
Coming up for Kid Scientist is something relatively straightforward. An album, by a band. But… that’s not all. Of course.
“The ‘into studio, release disc’ mentality I think is a perfectly suitable model for bands—we’re tracking a new album this year—but like with our A Report from the Future immersive release show and last year’s rock opera, Faust: go down with all the re$t, we’re increasingly interested in throwing more ingredients into the pot and seeing what’s possible. In addition to working on that new KS album and a studio recording for Faust this year, we’ve begun writing and developing a political horror farce called Scary Time for Young Men. In my ideal vision, it’s a short film with a standalone album and accompanying live stage show. This video was a huge crucible for that. We had two days essentially to shoot it, which, with a cast this size, multiple locations, programmed lighting, choreography, and sets, is insane.”
Only live for hours in this final form, here’s the official debut of “The Ballad of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.”
