Gennre Band Shoots ‘High School Sweethearts Forever’ Music Video in Los Angeles
In November, 2023, The Parisian Gennre Band team crossed the Atlantic, and jetted over the American ‘Great Plains’ before touching town in the City of Angels to film their second music video debut. The heart of Los Angeles’ visual aesthetic is the epitome of youthful rebellion, which Gennre did not shy in exploring through punk rock sounds and indie-sleeze imagery. ‘Highschool Sweethearts Forever’ music video features Los Angeles based models and creatives . Cast by MERDE Agency, directed by Phantom x Etienne Baret and produced by Camille Razat of Tazar Productions, the Paris/LA collaboration manifested from global unique friendships and a love for blending sound and scenes. Anna Sofia’s monophonic vocals cultivate a sensual yet scary character juxtaposed to Etienne Baret’s timid and yearning turned wild persona. In the video, the two bandmates are filmed in desolate and caustic landscapes. A car set aflame, a desolate skatepark, dry hilltops of the valley. Meanwhile, the camera transitions to a parallel storyline of debaucherous teenagers breaking and entering, stealing cards, finding love, culminating in the sand and stars of Venice Beach.
Gennre was honored with the coveted final prize with their maiden music video ‘Wynona’ winning both ‘Best Music Video’ and ‘Best new Artist.’ This festival is the epitome of unbridled creativity, championing raw talent over big-budget productions. MERDE is honored to feature Gennre in our AURAL issue and learn more about turning their sounds into visuals from the artists themselves.
Etienne Baret & Anna Sofia - The Band:
How did you each individually find your way making music?
ANNA : I’ve been very connected to music since my childhood, both my grandmothers loved to sing and there was always music in their houses. I loved to sing old Russian rock songs and karaoke. I briefly took singing classes but my father for some reason disliked my voice very much and forbade me from singing at home. When I moved to France as a teenager I was in a rock band that covered and performed songs two or three times a year. After I finished high school I took almost a ten year break from music, then I met Etienne.
ETIENNE : I grew up in in very musical atmosphere. My parents played 70’s rock vinyls over and over again, all the time, it was like a religion for us. Then when I was a teenager I learned guitar, I was not a popular kid and I was quite shy, so music gave me hope that other kids (and girls) would notice me. I precisely remember the first time I held a guitar in my hand, against my chest, and it immediately fucking transcended me, it was like a new form of language I suddenly had access to.
How did you meet?
ANNA : I was modeling and I needed new pictures, so I contacted multiple photographers and Etienne was one of them. We met for a photoshoot at Père Lachaise Cemetery. It’s funny because it’s a cemetery we both love and are very connected to. We love walking among the graves; we feel very at home and peaceful there, we both feel something special at cemeteries. During the photoshoot, we talked for hours about everything, life, death, and music as well. Etienne told me he wanted to create a new band and that he was organizing auditions for singers but hadn’t found the right one yet. I encouraged him without yet having thoughts of participating myself, then he asked if I could sing. I said “well, I think I can sing.” Then we started rehearsal.
What made you decide to create music together?
ANNA : Etienne was incredibly encouraging, I felt he really believed in me, which I hadn’t felt much of at that time. I had also lost some confidence because I hadn’t practiced for awhile, but I felt he could really see me, who I am and the singer that I am immediately when we started rehearsing for the first time.
ETIENNE : I think I saw five or six singers, they were all great but I didn’t feel the vibe or and the energy I was looking for in those auditions I held. When I proposed to Anna that we set up a rehearsal after the shooting, I felt something so powerful between us in terms of energy that I immediately thought it could work. Music is such a relative medium, of course it includes a lot of technical factors when you express yourself with a machine like a guitar, a drum set or a human voice, but the technical aspects are less important to me than the chemistry between multiple human beings' sensibilities expressing together as a collective whole. It’s a bit ridiculous to say, but when I met Anna I literally felt “it's her”.
Where does the name Gennre come from?
ETIENNE : We thought of a hundred band names over some beers, some incredibly cool and some horribly cringe, laughing a lot in the process. In French, “Genre” means “Gender” and/or “Genre”, but it’s also a parasite word we overuse, as many American people use the word “like” the same way. We would say, “Let’s name the band ‘like’ ……….” and we were dropping names, but we couldn’t find a really cool one. Then suddenly we thought “Wait a minute, we actually found the band name from the beginning”, voilà. So our band name is a parasite word with an extra n ‘Gennre.’
What does your collaborative process look like when it comes to songwriting and composing?
ANNA : We meet almost everyday, sometimes at my place, sometimes in the studio, and many times in the park. We’ll first have a coffee and talk about our lives, often about being super tired and depressed. So we both looked at each other with the same laziness, boredom and lack of zest for life. This low point is often where the process begins. It takes us a super long time to actually get to the guitar and the mic, but as soon as we start playing and singing, we are extremely productive and we can write a new song in a space of minutes. We’re incredibly lazy but incredibly productive at the same time.
Who are your biggest musical influences?
ANNA : In terms of writing, Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu, Blink 182 and SZA.
ETIENNE : My influences are constantly changing, but at the moment I would say Kid Cudi, Neil Young, Grimes and Alice In Chains. And Nirvana of course, always Kurt.
How do you address your deepest emotions through music?
ANNA : I try not to be dramatic, and tell it just like it is, being as vulnerable and truthful as I can be. Part of my music is also my shadow work. I'm not afraid to expose the darkest parts of myself, the needy side, the proud side, the dependent side, the fragile and maybe less appealing or strong sides of myself. I put all these qualities in my music because that’s what I want people to relate to, I want people to be able to feel less alone in their own feelings.
ETIENNE : I always come with a powerful, well constructed riff, as a base. Then I try to open myself to explore what feeling is inside of me, dirtying the riff a bit to show my cracks into the chords, that’s the part where I'm talking about myself the most. I also always try to be as honest as I can, which is the hardest part of the process, musically embracing the duality between my sharp elitist side and my teenage cheezy side. Honest emotion will always appeal to the listener, whether you like the song or not, if it's sincere it’s a win.
Where do you want Gennre to go?
ANNA : I want Gennre to go straight into people’s hearts, to go above and beyond all possible borders. I want people to cry to our songs, to laugh and dance too. I want to make people feel alive. I want to talk to all the people who are like Etienne and I, who feel different, like outcasts who haven’t found their way in the world, often feeling small and insecure at points in their lives. I want to show all these people that they’re not alone and they can make anything they want happen. They’re able to decide what happens in their lives, that they can take control but also honor their feelings.
ETIENNE : On a big fucking stage in LA.
What is it like translating your sounds into visuals?
ETIENNE : It’s complicated. Music and image are two very different ways of expression, and sometimes it can be hard to translate one emotion into another form of language. In a music video, I believe an image must support a sound and bring richness to it, but the image must not become more powerful than the sound, otherwise we forget the music. It’s same way as in a film, the music must enrich but not overpower the scene. It’s a complex balance to find. A music video can really elevate and magnify a song, but it can also kill it.
Do you feel that your band image matches the sound?
ANNA : Our band image is still being carefully crafted, but both Etienne and I never try to be anything other than ourselves, we don’t try to emulate anybody else. We are who we are, we are equal parts - grungy punk, emo fashionistas, intellectual stupid kids, and our music matches that in its purest form.
What does “Highschool Sweethearts Forever” Mean to you?
ANNA : HSF is a tale about lost innocence, about a beautiful love story that turned to dust, about first disappointments, and about realizing that even the purest and the most intense love doesn’t last forever. Specifically, I was telling the story of my first highschool love in a very sad and destructive way. The chorus is ironic, because I’m singing “Highschool Sweethearts Forever”, but it’s about first love not lasting forever, about people being immature and hurting each other – that first experience of heartbreak.
ETIENNE : For me it's a form of healing, in the sense that Anna sings about her weaknesses over a super fucking powerful riff. HSF is a personal revenge on life every time I play it.
What did you think of Los Angeles and the US during the filming process?
ANNA : I think LA is a huge weird mix of people, cultures, and neighborhoods. It was my first time in LA and it was hard for me to get the feel of it. Iit has much less of a city vibe than every other city I’ve been to in the US. It’s like multiple small towns glued together. For me the hardest part was the disparity between the rich and the poor. I feel that in LA it’s even more obvious than elsewhere. On a more positive note - it’s surrounded by absolutely gorgeous nature, which is one of the most impressive aspects for me – to be able to live in a megapolis and at the same time connect to nature anytime you like. I would love to go back and explore more.
ETIENNE : I’ve been to LA many times and I feel really attached to this city. It’s an amazing mix of cultures. You can’t compare LA to any other city in the US. I see California as a country in itself, in a way. I always feel a bit lost in this city. I used to call it the “LA Fever'' and I love it. There's a very special light that you can’t find anywhere else. We chased the sunset light while we were shooting. It's not so easy to capture it perfectly, because this perfect light is very short. You’ve got to be ready when it comes.
Sam & Celia - Videographers
Phantom is a Parisian production collective founded in 2023, created by Célia
Pyamootoo and Samuel Kaperski who work in multi-faceted forms of music videos, advertising, and cinema. Through their work, they’ve developed a unique universe that takes them to travel around the world, including the USA, South America and Africa. They are currently developing their first feature film.
When did you meet ?
We met ten years ago on a film set, and over the years, we have collaborated on various projects from commercials, to music videos, to fiction. In 2023, we decided to join forces and we founded Phantom Directors.
What drew you to film rather than still imagery ?
We create a close link between still imagery and film; photography and pictorial art inspire us in the precise construction of our frames and the choices of our camera compositions and angles. Cinema allows us to operate more freely in staging, capturing emotions and moments of life. We do not freeze moments; we make them last over time.
What do you like about filming music videos , rather than other film projects that music may not be the main focus?
What we love about music videos is working closely with the artist, immersing ourselves in their world, and developing an original story connected to the track. We enjoy the exciting challenge of enhancing the music with a dynamic visual universe. We also like to incorporate cinematic elements into our music videos, such as sequences with dialogues and ambient sound. These life scenes during musical breaks bring the music video closer to a film, creating a hybrid project.
What was your impression after listening to the song “Highschool Sweethearts Forever”?
The title immediately inspired us. The energy made us want to explore the theme of freedom through the lens of troubled youth. The music video is shot handheld, in an almost documentary style, to stay close to these actors playing younger versions, and capture their vitality. We tried to translate the darkness of the lyrics and the power of the riff through portraits of the actors and artists, whose melancholy shines through.
What about Etienne and Anna did you want to try to highlight in the film ?
We decided to place Anna and Etienne in different settings from those in the fiction. By isolating them from the group of youths and placing them in iconic and offbeat locations such as the LA River, Salton Sea, and Nude Bowl in Joshua Tree, we wanted to position them as narrators of the story.
Walk us through how you plan the “shot list” for the scenes ?
We used handheld cameras to follow the teenagers in their frantic run through LA. These cameras have a lifestyle approach, in contrast to more structured tableau shots where the camera is on a tripod. We also used slow motion for aesthetic and rhythmic choices. The alternation of these filming styles adds dynamism to the editing.
Was the fantasy and expectations of shooting in Los Angeles met with the reality of
filming here ?
It was quite incredible to achieve our goal of shooting in iconic places we love, like the LA River and the Joshua Tree desert. We were fortunate to take advantage of the beautiful light offered by the California sun. It was an unforgettable experience, and we are very proud of the result.
What were some challenges you faced during the project ?
We encountered specific problems during the villa sequence, where we had imagined the youths partying in the sun and swimming in the pool. Unfortunately, it rained all day, so we had to rethink the video and improvise our shots.
Camille Razat (Producer) Tazar Productions
What prompted you to start Tazar Productions?
I want to promote other artists and I also want to stop being the one who’s always waiting for answers to work. As an actress you’re always waiting for scripts to read, or castings and then feedback for these castings. As a woman I wanted to be able to fulfill my life by myself and to not depend on anyone. More importantly, I wish to be a part of the process of creation from the beginning. I love working with Etienne and Sam, we love to brainstorm ideas and discuss shots. And then I have to find solutions to make it happen !
What does Tazar mean?
I’ll let you think about that one … did you get it haha? It’s basically my name RAZAT in reverse TAZAR. It was important to me to have a very simple, representative name for me. It’s short, graphic and easy to pronounce in every language.
What aspects of your acting career do you bring into how you approach producing?
I suppose I’m very much close to the artists or actors I’m working with. I know what it cost to be vulnerable in front of a camera, I know it’s not an easy job to be an artist. So I’m gonna be their mom, their manager and their friend. I consider them as my family and I’ll always fight for them to feel comfortable with what they’re doing, what they wear, what we are filming. On the artistic level I think I see emotions and “acting” on a different eye that can help the concept, or the movie to be more credible and touching for people. So I’m always on set watching and trying to help actors getting on their roles or asking directors to do one more take if I think the person can do better.
What was your biggest challenge producing Highschool Sweethearts Forever?
Oh my god : EVERYTHING. First it’s in the US so obviously we were “stealing” images everywhere because we r not able to shoot here. Then, we had to spot locations on GTA or google maps. We didn’t had so much time to prep the entire music video not to mention that we were also filming a short movie the next week in Vegas. I’m putting the whole budget on the table so we had to find the good gear thanks to Stray Angels Films we were able to book it very easily. They’ve been very kind to us.
As TAZAR is my production and I’m pretty much the only producer in it (except for Lina Maldonado that helps me on some stuff) I had to have a small team. We prepared, shooted and executed this shoot with a crew of 4 people. Four people to prep the shoot, and film it. That’s crazy. I even did the focus on the music video … which is obviously not my job normally.
BUT it would not have been possible without Molly’s help. She helped us cast the entire actors, give us some cool spots. She was very much helping and adorable.
What do you believe sets Gennre apart from other bands?
They have this “je ne sais quoi” as we say in French. They are bloody creative, beautiful and they’re kind of weirdos which make their music unique and bold. Étienne and Anna with the drummer Alex have a real connexion together. They have this taste for Emo rock punk music and they do it with this visionary vision. If I would compare I guess they’re transforming rock music as Lil Yachty is transforming rap music. They’re really are doing something different. And they deserved to be on stage in front of thousands of people.
What was it like producing a video in another country?
It was absolutely amazing. The cast was so nice and professional, the landscapes truly beautiful and the light was perfect. I loved shooting in LA. It has such a diversity of landscapes that makes it perfect to shoot in.
What are your goals with the company?
I’d like to produce more music videos for artists that I admire and fashion AD. I want to shoot our first long feature in 3 years maximum. TAZAR, more than a production, is a collective of people that want to create fast and good. We have millions of ideas and great concept waiting. We want to change the way people produce just as A24 did for movies. We want to be able to be free in our creation and to give people something different to see that will move them and will not forget.