It’s 6pm in a field in South Yorkshire, and Mat Welsh – guitarist, vocalist and band manager of UK metalcore stalwarts While She Sleeps – has just set a piano on fire. "Let’s have a ritual!” he screeches, like a member of a black metal band, eyes bulging as he jumps up and down with unadulterated glee. Bassist Aaran McKenzie sternly motions for Mat to step away from the blaze. He grabs a video camera, and addresses a male actor the band have hired for the day: “Get as close to it as you can and scream at it – really let me feel the heartache. Really scream!”
Frontman Loz Taylor, probably the calmest person within a 20-mile radius, turns to us in the pitch black, face illuminated solely by the fire a few feet away. He smiles. “This looks fucking mint.” He’s not wrong. It’s also completely terrifying. We’ve travelled to Chesterfield, 15 miles south of While She Sleeps’ hometown of Sheffield, to see the band make a music video for a new song called To The Flowers. Like everything they do in their career, they’re giving it 100%. Today’s flaming piano scene is part of a high-concept story involving the breakdown of a relationship, which will feature everything from cars submerged in lakes to a sodden actor walking through the streets of the Steel City. The shoot will take two months to complete.
