GCN are delighted to share dark-wave duo Evvol’s uncensored video for their latest single ‘Release Me’.

The band consist of Irish woman Julie Chance and her Australian partner Jane Arnison. Speaking on the lyrics for ‘Release Me’, the duo explains, “musically we wanted to create something that had a more upbeat vibe juxtaposed against darker lyrical content. We’ve actually had this song for a couple of years now and always wanted to do something with it so it was exciting to set it free. The inspiration for the video came as an extension of the idea of ‘release’. We had wanted to work with the director Matt for a while and love his sensual approach to explicit content – it all just came together at the right moment. We don’t really want [the queer community] to take any specific message or meaning other than for female queers to feel represented.”

Evvol’s video was co-directed by Chance and Matt Lambert, who is well known for his queer photography and film-making in which he aims to portray realism and intimacy. Julie and Jane say working with Matt was “a dream”:

“We love Matt. He is a great friend and also a super talented director. It was great to be in the presence of people who are on top of their craft – there is an ease and calmness that impacts everyone and results in really great performances from everyone involved.”

Women’s bodies are so often fetishised as something that should be hidden away. Part of Evvol’s mission is to counter this narrative, reclaiming it as an  ’empowering’ experience.

“It’s nice to take the power back against a male gaze of what females do and say, more specifically the notions of lesbian sex that have been countlessly misrepresented in film and other media.”

Upon release of the video, they initially faced censorship from video hosting sites, with YouTube declining to host it:

“Let’s take the specific moment when this video was censored – we talked about how it triggered a regression, a kind of reversal of all our personal work that we have done to de-program ourselves against the concept that what we are and what we do is wrong. Whilst also saying ‘fuck you’ to the censors, we also felt fear and shame and had to process all those conflicting emotions. So it still has a lasting effect on our psyche.”

On how the queer community can support queer artists, Evvol say “we push back like we always do. We organise, we assemble and we shout. Whatever form that shout may take. And changes are happening. Could we have a video like this ten years ago and have it posted on such big media sites? We’re not so sure.”