A fluke meeting of minds between Radical Friend and experimental rock band Yeasayer inspired the directing duo to introduce an interactive component to their latest music promo for the Brooklyn-based band.

Radical Friend is the moniker of directing partners Kirby McClure and Julia Grigorian. The pair first discovered Yeasayer only three weeks before the band contacted them to direct their upcoming single, Ambling Alp.

It only took a few conversations and they realized it was going to be their most inspired collaboration yet. "Early on they sent us a huge folder of images and textures they felt represented the mood of their new album and our jaws dropped like 'woah we're summoning similar spirits'. Because of the uncanny timing we were very stoked to be working with them," recalls one half of the directing duo, Kirby McClure.

The video for the "fucked up evil drippin' pop anthem" (Kirby's words, not ours!) that is Ambling Alp has two elements: there is a straight cut version that gets broadcast and screened and then there is the interactive component which exists as a kind of portal into select scenes from the video, and gives fans a live-action glimpse into the world of the new single. Using their computer mouse fans can move around the scenes with a 360 degree camera and click between several scenes.

"The landscape we chose to shoot on is composed of this black twisted volcanic rock that extends from the mouth of the volcano out in every direction for several miles," describes McClure. "We were excited about having all of these naked, white, pale, vulnerable bodies serving as the only contrast to the sharp, black, heavy landscape."

A barren landscape, naked bodies and the volcanic crater suited the themes of psychedelic and experimental rock that correspond with the band. (But the exact whereabouts of this volcanic crater remains top secret: " It's a privately owned volcanic crater, if we were to disclose its whereabouts every film student in LA would be up there filming").

After several discussions the band left the directors alone for a couple of weeks to come up with a treatment for the promo. "We thought they were expecting the treatment to be something pretty fucking out there in an eerie, nether-world with hyper-activated Nicolas Roeg style editing," McClure enthuses, "and the actual treatment ended up reading like some cult brochure with its own myths."

Already on the radar as web-friendly and innovative directors, the duo sparked attention with their rock-smashing website early last year. This is not the Los Angeles- based directors' first adventure into the interactive world for a band: they created an interactive music video for Black Moth Super Rainbow's single Dark Bubbles earlier this year. But the current project ran a lot smoother, thanks to some help in post-production.

"The Black Moth Super Rainbow project took longer than this because we had minimal help on the effects. This project was a lot less technically strenuous but we were still able to take our time and bathe and feed it along the way," comments McClure.

Ambling Alp is a single off Yeasayer's upcoming album due to be released early next year and while there is no definite date set for the whole video's release, you can delve into the Yeasayer's world by checking out the trailer to the music promo below.

Radical Friend have also shot a short film entitled Sweat which they hope to have complete by the end of this year.