Kanye West recently stole the show at the VMAs with the premiere of his new video for “Fade”. The video stars G.O.O.D. Music’s Teyana Taylor and her real-life boyfriend Iman Shumpert, and it features some amazing Flashdance-style dance moves, a flock of sheep and a surreal cat face.

There have been a few interpretations of the video already. Choreographer Jae Blaze said its ending was about “how amazing Teyana is, and how she's been on the rise, and how she's working, and you are now seeing her blossom into this fierce lioness, this fierce cat”. Teyana Taylor herself offered no explanation, instead saying that “the whole video is deeper than people probably processed it... I get it, but I want them to really figure it out and really understand what’s going on.” Now, the video’s director has explained some of its influences and how it came to be.

Eli Russell Linnetz, a 24-year-old filmmaker and graduate of the University of Southern California, is part of Kanye’s inner circle – he was recently involved in the “Famous” art exhibition. He explained that Kanye emailed him a brief for the “Fade” video that granted him a lot of creative freedom. “I just got an email from Kanye superlate at night,” Linnetz told the New York Times, “saying, ‘I want you to direct ‘Fade.’ Space, space, space. ‘Teyana Taylor dancing. Iman Shumpert’... taking thousands of years of culture and throwing them into a single frame or moment. That’s our approach whether it’s ‘Famous’ or ‘Fade’ or fashion or the tour.”

Linnetz goes on to explain that the video’s reference points included Flashdance (duh), photos of Grace Jones by Jean-Paul Goude, and 70s and 80s porn. “That was less about the imagery and more about the texture of the skin, the oiliness,” Linnetz explained. He also discussed how everything from Dancing With The Stars to John Carpenter films to David Cronenberg’s The Fly went into the video.

He also elaborated on the video’s creative team. “I brought on Guillermo Navarro, who shot Jackie Brown, as the cinematographer. Renelou Padora did the styling, and then Tino (Schaedler) did the art direction. He’s done everything from Harry Potter movies to Daft Punk videos. It all seems fragmented, and then it’s all boiled down to this one image because Kanye is so good about overseeing the people involved.”

The full interview is an interesting insight into Kanye West’s process. Read it here.