Billy Idol is to take his fans on a journey behind-the-scenes of the music video for his 1984 hit ‘Eyes Without A Face’.
The punk rock legend is the latest artist to use Vevo Footnotes, as he takes us through the songwriting and video production process of this track.
In the video, Idol reveals that he was keen to write an anti-love song as the 1980s were already full of soppy, love songs.
Describing ‘Eyes Without A Face’ as a murder track, Idol explains how he was influenced by many silent movies, referring to their similarities in making a major impact despite issues over budget and resources.
“I think I was deliberately trying to write not a love song,” Idol says, “because the 80s was full of love songs — all drippy, soppy, love songs. So I thought maybe I just write an anti-love song. It’s almost a murder song…like a serial killer”.
“nailed it”
Once they overcame those obstacles, Billy Idol explained that the next item on the agenda for him and his band was getting the sound right.
“One of the things we were having trouble with was the bassline… I like reggae, so I wanted it to be a really prominent bassline, and we were having a hell of a time finding someone who could play my idea until we met Sal Cuevas, who was playing in the Dreamgirls Broadway band, and he nailed it”, Idol reveals.
On the music video itself, Idol also added, “I liked a lot of silent movies… there was an old book I had that had a lot of old stills [from] Boris Karloff movies, The Black Cat, where he’s in front of an altar with a load of crosses behind him. A lot of these things were influencing me with the ‘White Wedding’ video, with ‘Eyes Without A Face.’ So that’s what I was bringing into my videos, this kind of old influence of movies a hundred years before”.
He also adds, “we were really trying to do a lot with nothing, and I think that they still hold up. They look pretty good. In fact, Miley Cyrus says they’re the sexiest videos she liked to watch. So thank you, Miley”.
“Oh, my hair’s really fried”
Elsewhere, Billy Idol also reflects on suffering a slight mishap with his hair dye the night before the video shoot.
“Perri bleached my hair. We fell asleep. When we woke up, it was like, ‘Oh, my hair’s really fried…’ That’s the kind of fun we had in the 1980s”, stated Idol.
Last November, Billy Idol’s concert film ‘Billy Idol: State Line’ was streamed via Veeps. More on this here.
Behind The Song “Best Way Out of Here,” one of the bonus unreleased tracks on the Rebel Yell Expanded Edition, out now! Buy, download, or stream here: https://t.co/VYWpnmFcMy pic.twitter.com/9KcqqYrqbf
— Billy Idol (@BillyIdol) April 26, 2024
