Jade Osner (Vocals) states that "the idea and lyrics for Allegiant were heavily inspired by one of my favourite books of all time (The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden). The concept is that we are this immense army, or legion if you prefer, that is capable of conquering whole planets and entire galaxies. We may be driven by some dark otherworldly force, but it is our unity and belief in each other that gives us our power. We achieve our goals by ANY means necessary and we fear none who get in our way. As long as we have unity, we are strong. It’s a song for all those that feel out of place in this lonely world."
 

Jade goes on to share that "through these words, I want our fans to know that no matter your situation, no matter how isolated you feel, no matter how different you are … we will always find others who feel the same way! No matter how insignificant, the smallest common goal can start the biggest chain reaction." 

 

Roushan van Niekerk (Bass & Mask Creator) shares that "we've done two music videos prior to this, but we chose to go a route that we hadn't tried before. Filming the Allegiant music video really pushed us out of our comfort zone. We had to get in touch with our rawest emotions and repeat it over and over in order to get the perfect shot. The meaning of this song is close to our hearts and we didn't want to go the normal route of us playing our instruments in the video and rather create a miniature film, something about our core concepts rather than just a band performing. We created grotesque masks that symbolise our deepest, darkest inner torment, and light bunny masks to create a striking contrast representing the light within. Both represent our mascot, Frank the bunny, just different sides. This is the essence of Riddlebreak, the battles inside of each of us which we must overcome."

 

David Devo Oosthuizen from Devographic Music Media & PR (Riddlebreak Management, Concept Direction as well as Behind the Scenes Photo & Video) adds that "giving life to the Allegiant concept started with the single artwork already. It was key to strongly symbolise the message of the song; essentially the dark struggles we all face and juxtapose against the light that true hope and camaraderie brings. We worked with the epic Chris Valentine on the artwork, and it came out great! We knew this had to strongly transcend to the music video as well. At Spawn Fest, Jade and I played around with a warp concept, taking inspiration from the line 'The Power of the warp, a curse and a blessing, blame your false idols for the power you’re missing'. We loved how that looked and we developed the concept further as a team. I subsequently knew I had to bring in my good pal Chris Preyser to take it to the next level with us. Filming was challenging, but we pulled it off stellar. Roushan's mad skills made the illustration come to chilling life with all the masks, whilst filming with Chris was (as always) a legendary experience! I love working with him and the team supported by James Williams (Grip), Alex Wolf (Assistant) and Nathan Ferreira (1st CA). We believe the results speak for themselves!" 

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According to Chris Preyser (Allegiant DOP and Editor) "I had a lot of fun working on this video with the guys from Riddlebreak. From concept discussions with the awesome David Devo Oosthuizen, I knew it was going to be a technical challenge as well as difficult to illustrate the concepts portrayed in the music. The band was great to work with and really acted into the concept very well, even creating the incredible masks to characterise the struggles depicted in the video. Big thanks to my crew (James Williams, Nathan Ferreira and Alex Wolf) for all there hard work!"

 

Julian Vosloo (Riddlebreak Lead Guitar) adds that 'it was an awesome experience working with Chris Preyser, David Devo Oosthuizen and the team. By far the most professional video shoot we've done and we're very excited about the results. It was also a learning experience for us in terms of acting in our own video, which can be daunting, but with the direction from Chris and Devo I feel we really nailed it!'

 

So, what is next for Riddlebreak?
Early 2020 will see Riddlebreak release the next single "The Hog" that will also be accompanied by a Music Video. We will thereafter release another single or two until the new album drops mid 2020. We have lots of shows and touring to do in support of our new material and plan to make 2020 a mammoth Riddlebreak Year
 

Allegiant is available on Spotify, Google Play, iTunes and many more