Bombay’s last album campaign was all based around the core idea of loops and cycles. Starting with the way the album was composed and built up, sampling sounds and instruments from all over the world, looping and overlapping them – through to the end result of the album artwork and the concept behind that. Every other initiative around album launch had to start with the same premise.

Inspired by Eadweard Muybridge ’s work, the forefather of studies in motion-picture projection, we set out to bring this concept into 2014 with an interactive element to engage the now-sizable Bombay fanbase. He came up with the phenakistoscope and zoetrope technology to create the first ‘movies’ (or mini gifs!). So we shot a video that followed the zoetrope idea and created a world-first: an interactive music video for their first single, ‘Carry Me’, that allowed invideo animation by the viewer by dragging the mouse from side to side. We partnered with Powster, a very proactive production company with a keen sense of our vision.

The result saw Bombay’s launch be the strongest yet – with its own website: www.carryme.tv. It was a massive talking point, both among fans and the media. The interactive video was built up by filming nine almost identical takes, which then are controlled by the mouse to create the in-video animation, all without disrupting the flow of the video. By combining a male/ female pair of contemporary dancers with takes of the band singing, drumming and in a variety of situations, this brought to life an interesting idea with quick and exciting visuals that pulsate in line with the percussive nature of the song.

Whilst this was the video we launched the single (and album) with, we also created a “definitive director’s cut” – which Powster edited – to sit on Vevo (the more traditional platform). However, this was then made even more visually interesting by superimposing another layer of animations by the person that created the live visuals for their new tour.