We Want to Live Inside Oscar and the Wolf's 'Oliver' Video
Music

We Want to Live Inside Oscar and the Wolf's 'Oliver' Video

Fantasies are impossible come by, at least in the most idealistic sense, so Oscar and the Wolf (real name Max Colombie) decided to create his very own for the lead single off his new album, The Shimmer.

"I depicted a fantasy dream world in which I would like to stay forever, but is in fact never the reality of life," the queer musician says of his "Oliver" music video, out today, capturing a group of friends lounging and laughing poolside underneath the sun.

It's giving Call Me By Your Name, it's giving Lady Gaga "G.U.Y." — worlds we'd love to live inside.

Shot through a hazy filter, the lo-fi footage looks personal — like a handheld VHS keepsake — but its euphoric energy suggests we're watching a piece of Colombie's imagination. The group runs together through fields, eats ripe fruit in a shower of bubbles and, of course, breaks into choreography.

Colombie says the video didn't have "much budget," so he decided to direct it himself — something that's always been a dream of his, especially since the music he creates is very "visual." So he invited all his best friends to volunteer, including both the cast and crew.

"I wanted to depict a perfect hot summer day spending time with the people I love, which are the people behind and in front of the camera," he says. "It was a very natural experience. I wanted to translate how I see the world when I'm surrounded by these friends with video as a medium."

For the artist though, "Oliver" also highlights the deeper, melancholy truth that "this fantasy dreamworld will not remain forever" — an undertone that's supported with an ominous, "To be continued," at the very end.

"Oliver" appears on his forthcoming effort, The Shimmer. Like his entire discography (Colombie debuted in 2012 as Oscar and the Wolf with his Summer Skin EP), this next music promises to create pictures out of sounds.

"Even when I make videos, I always film things that shimmer, like light on a water," he says, underscoring all the shots in "Oliver" of sunlight bouncing off the surface of a pool. "It describes how I want my music to sound. When you enter the shimmer, it transforms your whole world."

Photos courtesy of Kris De Smet