Live Sessions

A perfect coming together of parts and people – that’s the story of how Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard began filming live sessions, and the story of the duo as a whole.

When Iain and Jane met as students, music bonded them, and meeting another person to whom all art forms combined, interweaving film, music, art and beyond, made it magic. It’s the same passion that has fueled the entirety of their award-winning and multifaceted career, building their reputation on the fact that the same artistry is applied across the board, whether it’s a full feature film, or a five-track live session.

It makes perfect sense. As two artists and directors whose work has always intersected with music, working directly with musicians and labels was bound to be a given. Both working in-house at record labels at one time, it’s not just that they have a unique understanding of what an artist needs, but they’re devoted to bringing to life the energy an artist wants.

The duo’s running collaboration with is another one of those perfect coming togethers – two filmmakers obsessed with music, a music label obsessed with great visuals. As a cornerstone of what the label was built on, the matched devotion made for something special.

So from 2008 to the current day, Iain & Jane have filmed dozens of live music sessions for 4AD, Mute, XL and Rough Trade, for artists like Bon Iver, Nick Cave, St Vincent, Beth Orton, Marianne Faithfull, The xx and more. The days in the studio were as special and as fruitful as days on set.

2008, in a basement – It began with an invite. Nick Cave was starting something new: Grinderman. Iain and Jane were let inside as the new band started to take shape. In a basement studio, dingy yet perfectly reminiscent of all those early days all new bands know well, the rough and rowdy days that kick off the energy, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos were shaking the walls; Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie was there to join in, and the directors were there to take the energy and capture it without taming it.

They did it. Then in 2011, they did it again, this time in RAK Studios for their second album. All of this paved the way for 20,000 Days On Earth – their feature film with Nick Cave.

2011, getting carried away – Surely one of the best feelings is simply getting caught up and swept away. As a testament to the creative freedom and energy of the duo’s live sessions, the story of Gang Gang Dance and the abandoned schedule sums it up. After conversations with the band about Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms, they set about making their own, turning Angelic Studios in rural England into a custom-built space full of mirrors that reflected on and on forever. However, an idea like that takes time. So most of the day allotted for the session got swept up in that, meaning that the band didn’t actually start playing until past midnight, and the crew only called cut when the morning sun was up.

2011, out in Brooklyn – With St Vincent, Iain and Jane were there at Shangri-La studios as the artist recorded songs from her third album, Strange Mercy, live, for the very first time. Bringing together a brand new live band, brand new songs and a sound that sits uniquely between her touring show and recorded self, the result is a vital capturing of a corner of the artist that might have gone unseen otherwise. It’s a piece of footage that immortalises artistic evolution, live.

2012, on a small island – with artists at the helm, a live session goes far beyond a studio shoot. For Indians, the band and crew decamped to Osea Island, a tiny, barely known and privately owned tidal island in the estuary of the Blackwater in Essex. Under the night sky, during a moment of calm in an unusually choppy part of the Thames, the band were placed out in the open air and captured with the same consideration as a music video and the same cinematic eye as a movie.

2012, Bon Iver at AIR Studios – The comment section for this live session is packed with repeat viewers still coming back over a decade later. It’s because they did something different. While Bon Iver, at the time, was typically a mammoth eleven-piece unit, the decision was made to peel it all back to simply Justin Vernon and Sean Carey, both on pianos, both facing each other. Staged in the main live room at Air Studios with Jake Jackson engineering. It’s a reminder that sometimes capturing energy is simply capturing intimacy.

Then in 2014 – The opposite approach was applied to Daughter’s session and the three-piece unit was joined by a full 10-piece classic ensemble. Anything goes, except the expected.

2017, live to the world – Embracing a new challenge of making something special right there and then with no chance to edit, Iain and Jane’s work with The XX saw them filming a live session being instantly broadcast across their social channels. Still approaching it with the same artistic eye, only this time it had to be instantaneous.

As directors who have worked extensively with archive and with footage of live sessions and performances for their own films, such as the performances from Courtney Love and Marianne Faithfull in Broken English. The intention is to make something lasting, something beautiful and something that isn’t just a marketing tool, but is a true representation of the talent that made them.