In this month’s Dazed & Confused, Robert “3D” Del Naja talks about Massive Attack’s film project for their fifth album Heligoland. The band commissioned 7 low-budget videos – most of which are still in the making – by both established names and those with little experience of directing. “We are always keen not to be in the videos, and not to compromise the idea by having to make an appearance,” says Del Naja. “But on the whole it has been a case of carte blanche with the directors, to the extent where we said: ‘We will give you the stems of the tracks and you can use whichever components you want, loop some parts, take the vocals out…’ We have always been totally unprecious.” After Adam & Olly's film we give you Ewen Spencer’s “Flat of the Blade” – accompanied by an interview with the man himself below.

Photographer Ewen Spencer’s intimate documentary of gang members in Birmingham works as a backdrop to the melancholic song ‘Flat of the Blade’. Taking on the role of director for the first time in his career, Spencer became involved in the project after working with kids associated with gangs in and around London. Taking a similar approach to the project for his book Open Mic, when he documented the those at the centre of the city’s grime scene, this time Spencer chooses as his real-life protagonist Dwain, part of Birmingham’s Burger Bar Crew…

Dazed Digital: Why did you choose the song ‘Flat of the Blade’?
Ewen Spencer: Massive Attack let us choose which song we wanted to do. It just felt more sort of cinematic than the others; it had a bit more of a beat to it. It was almost like a little narrative, that noise in the background just carried it along. So I thought it would be quite a nice little current to have running through the film.

DD: What was the idea for your short film, and did your project for the book Open Mic have any influence on it?
Ewen Spencer: Well the lad I focused on is called Dwain, he’s from Handsworth in Birmingham. He’s associated with the Burger Bar Crew, which is one of big gangs, the other being the Johnsons. I just wanted to put forward the different cultural ideas that are there. So this hopes to raise more questions than just the point of him being in a gang or being a gang member. It’s more about the cultural pureness which doesn’t get too much debate.

DD: How did you get involved with Dwain? Did you find him through his grime music?
Ewen Spencer: He’s not necessarily a grime artist but he wants to be an MC, he’s more into clubs and baselines. I wouldn’t really listen to his music, it was more the fact that he was involved with this gang and he’s got a bit of a troubled past. I got to know him through Terrence, who is a gang member up there. He organises football matches that get the lads together from the two different sides so they can come together and play football and deal with their conflicts and beef with each other as adults. He was very keen on me to do this sort of project, I guess he realised I was coming from a sound place. Everyone in the film are gang members.

DD: The kid at the end really caught my attention. Is it kind of like a time line, that the kid grows up to be the older gang member?
Ewen Spencer: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. That’s his cousin who he lives with. The little medley at the end, there’s a little cut away isn’t there of them MC-ing on the TV screen and then it ends up looking back at Dwain again. I guess it’s sort of the idea of perpetuating the next generation if you like. Make of it what you will! But I’m glad you picked up on that.

DD: How do you think it relates to the song itself, do you think there is a correlation between the two?
Ewen Spencer: I chose the song because originally it was called ‘Bullet Proof Love’ but it ended up being called ‘Flat of the Blade’. I guess that title works for me too. Anything that has been created is metaphorical, it’s ambiguous, and it’s up to you to interpret what you want from it.  The way I heard it and felt it was more about the idea of family and that’s kind of what Dwain’s existence is about really. In a lot of ways it’s about protecting his culture, protecting his people.

To watch other videos from Heligoland, visit www.massiveattack.com