Marzipan Marzipan & Resident Tourist at the Berlin Marathon

I'll do this post in English as I think there might be some non-Danes who will be seeing the video I am about to write about.

Also available on Vimeo in better quality.

I've known DJ, musician and artist Zelda Panda for something like 8 years or more by now. Along the way we've done a few musical things together, but mainly she's been doing her own thing as Marzipan Marzipan - and with others. I also released a compilation of her songs on my record label Sound Of Perpetual Astonishment (SOPA) and she's created various album covers for releases on it too. We have a sort of Berlin, Germany - Aarhus, Denmark "tunnel" between the two cities. A straight connection through things which we make happen or that just seem to happen by themselves.

In July of 2012 I visited Berlin yet again and we ended up recording three cover songs in her flat. Some of which we had played in concert a few times. One of them was John Lennon's "Watching The Wheels". A beautiful song that I actually was unaware of until Panda told me about it not so long ago.

In September I was in Berlin again and was invited for a brunch on the sidewalk outside the "Pandahaus". The Berlin Marathon was going right past the house that day. Panda had suggested we film a music video while it was all going on. I liked the idea. It was simple and fun. But I had no idea how we would do it practically and how much time I would have with all the runners going by. It turned out the main part of runners we going by for about an hour or so.

I arrived around 9.30 in the morning after getting to bed at 3.00 because I had shot another music video with Sister Chain & Brother John the night before elsewhere in Berlin. I'll write about that here later as well. It was just as much a hit-and-run operation with limited time as the marathon shoot was.

I have filmed live performances for years, but not professionally, and have also been doing some documentary work. But never really made a music video, as such. So this is my first. Although it's actually the second I filmed within that 14 hour period in Berlin.

When not being in control of events - like a marathon - as well as being rather new at it, I just had to wing it. At the same time that allowed space for happy coincidences. And somehow they often seem to happen in the company of Zelda Panda.

For instance when she sings "they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind" one runner is walking behind her looking at her at that very moment. No, he wasn't paid or told to do so, he-he. And later when I film her up close and switch focus to the background with runners then a runner with "Denmark" on her shirt walks by. Also a total coincidence that the before-mentioned "tunnel" showed its head in the video like that.

What carries the video I think is - in part - the fact that it was done on the spot in the middle of a major event. Capturing a moment. But mostly it is, of course, due to Zelda Panda's utterly charming performance. And well, also that we managed to do a pretty good version of that great song, if I may say so. It's obvious that John Lennon's lyrics really speak to the singer in question here. :-)

I hope you enjoy the video. It was fun making it. And for now I can't get enough of watching it myself. Warm, fuzzy feeling...

L