Kill Your Idols: The State Trooper Music Video

reinventing Springsteen, erasing The Cure, and setting off alarms

My music video for State Trooper is out now with a cameo from The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell. It premiered on Flood Magazine with a lovely write up.

Last month, I spent a weekend in the English countryside with my friend Roger and my video collaborator, Mimi Supernova. Naturally, since I'm incapable of taking any real "time off," I turned the opportunity into an impromptu music video shoot. That's usually how my best ideas start—on the fly, making use of what's lying around. In this case, the magic began in Roger's attic, where we unearthed a trove of old electronics: archaic camcorders, vintage televisions, and forgotten remnants of 1990s technology.

My original plan was simple: shoot the entire video on the old camcorder. Retro, gritty, noisy. But, as is often the case when working with outdated tech, we ran into some issues. Specifically, we didn't have the right adapters to transcribe the camcorder footage onto a MacBook. Luckily, we found a TV of the same era as the camcorder and were able to run the live feed from the camera onto its screen. Then, we filmed that screen with a digital camera. The result? Me, multiplied on screens of varying sizes, in all their lo-fi, glitchy glory. It was all very meta.

Of course, no shoot of mine would be complete without a blunder (or two). When I first "tested" the camcorder, I did what any pro would do—hastily pushed every button. It turns out I recorded a few seconds over the mini tape inside. A tape that just so happened to contain unreleased footage of The Cure rehearsing in 1993. Whoops. If that wasn't bad enough, the next day, Roger picked up the camcorder, hit record without warning, and further obliterated the coveted film. Whoops (again). At this point, the "kill your idols" theme presented itself.

The shooting had to happen at night—total darkness was required—and, of course, the smoke from the fog machine set off the fire alarms, which were too high to turn off. As a result, we woke up the village’s sleeping cows and surrounding neighbors with blaring shrieks. Life in the country needs a little shake-up every now and then.

This video is for my reinterpretation of Springsteen’s State Trooper, part of my recently released covers EP, STRANGERS (out now via Sonic Ritual). The EP, produced by Darian Zahedi (CRX) and me, started as a way to confront the tension of being a feminist rock musician influenced by male artists—many of whom, let's be honest, are "problematic." I chose songs that live in the gray area where admiration meets discomfort, then filtered them through my perspective as a woman.

The State Trooper video reinforces that same tension. It's an exercise in flipping the male gaze, subverting expectations, and wrestling with the contradictions of my own influences. Roger's cameo captured the "kill your idols" theme I've been exploring in my art and writing.

The whole process was creative, challenging, and fun, and I couldn't be happier with the results. It’s a Christmas miracle like the baby Jesus. Have you watched it?

c u next tuesday.

XX CARRÉ

Plz like, comment, share, etc below.