Premiere: Kito Jempere – Love Myself But I Can’t Make It Love

The label and art collective interviewed Kito and the video maker Mila and Pech0ng …

Your press release says that after releasing “Green Monster” last year you stopped doing album thing every three years and planned to do one more album out in October 2024. First single is “Love Myself But I  Can’t Make It Love” and it sounds like something Kito has never done before.

Kito, can you tell us about the track? This is your 5th album opener already. Why this? Why
now?
Kito Jempere: “Hey, this track went so quick, it’s so short and one phrase. I remember literally
saying «give me a second» to my wife, going to our bedroom with laptop and my school-years
acoustic guitar and it was straight layer after layer one take each and that’s it. This track and album which I’m actually preparing for this year it’s my intimate talk with myself, even more bold and laidback than «Green Monster», so 2003 me, so 1998 me, and etc. My school-guitar, my real
all-time-favourite influences as Pixies, R.E.M., Weezer to name a few. Why this? Always wanted. Why now? This is photo-proof of this year, how I feel and how I live. Thank you for quoting Jarvis Cocker in question tho.”

You rarely do music videos, why so? Green Monster was accompanied with two
amazing shots for «The Language Of Love» and «Strong Accent», both movie-level opuses. Can you tell us your relationship with your own videos and music videos in general, can you name a
few?
Kito: “After 20+ years in music I finally understood that for me music is cinema. When I
listen to anything — I’m in the movies, I need to see the setting, surroundings, picture, characters, etc. Of course all from imagination but still. I do music for movies which exists only in my head.  Sending so much love to Grigory Nort, Nancy Schneider and Sofia Kilroy for making such «hitting the aim» visuals which I can actually call «short movies» for me. That’s actually the first time I’m actually pleased with my own videos. For me music videos originally was way to see the image of the artist, but I have few, that really blew my mind, I still think that the best video ever is «Velouria» by the Pixies, piece of art and for 1990 it’s wow, «Movie Script Ending» by Death Cab For Cutie, «Paranoid Android» by Radiohead, «Henry Lee» by Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, «Undone, The Sweater Song» by Weezer and obv. «Buddy Holly» by Spike Jonze are Wow Wow Wow, his Beastie Boys works are there in the #1s list too of course. Making the color of the video part of music is R.E.M’.s «Losing My Religion» — so together with the album cover, mood and shape of the track. I don’t like the «Out of Time» album that much tho and naming «LMR» as my favorite seems a bit dumb, but.. just rewatch it. The most crazy idea in music videos I saw it «Imitation of Life» by R.E.M. (also to re-watch). I can go on forever so better stop me now.”

Pech0ng, we see you were working on several releases with Kito before, what was your favorite part?
Pech0ng: “hehehe, it’s hard to highlight any particular release, all of them were awesome…I’m very  into Kito’s music.  It’s a pleasure to work with Kito and it’s really creative! If you look at our chat room, 80 percent of the characters are full of heart emoji ❤🤤. I really like the cover art for Punk African and I really like the reels for Rattle. It’s because Kito talks openly and trusts me!!!”

Pech0ng, how did you manage to team up with Mila? What were your previous projects together or this is one you have started with? Can both of you tell us your background in music videos, design and art?
Pech0ng: “I met Milka in Yekaterinburg a few years ago. I was finishing university at the time, and Milka was finishing school. Despite her young age, she was already a prominent member of the art scene in the city, so I immediately realized that I wanted to fool around with her!
I think we did not intentionally inspire each other with their moves, so only now we get to synthesize our own styles. Our first project is still unfinished, hahahahahah:) It was a triptych in 2019 that we still haven’t finished, due to moving and other things…but I still hope to finish it.
But afterwards we did a lot of other cool stuff, illustrations, prints, animated clips and more! All the time it was some kind of cartoon 2d story. Now we decided to experiment with new techniques, thanks a lot to Kito for this opportunity.”

Kito, Mila and pech0ng, can u tell us what drove you to pick this «room-tour» video idea and technical decision for «Love Myself But I Can’t Make It Love»?
Mila and pech0ng: “The apartment is a very important part of my understanding of others and
myself. First of all, I always like to visit my friends, as I think it helps me to understand people on a whole new level. I was glad to visit Kito’s apartment, even though it was in digital format, and I
always wait for him to visit me.  The apartment also reflects the inner state of a person. If you are sad or happy, it always reflects to the smallest detail, whether you made the bed or not. The apartment in our video is, first of all, a metaphysical space that represents different stages of love and self-acceptance. The character is immersed in his head, going further and further away from reality but closer and closer to himself, and in the end, going round and round the different corners of understanding love in general.

Visuals can be mostly explained by the distorted perception of reality. Everything seems to be
disassembled into spaces and planes, like a person in pursuit of love in themselves. I was very
happy to have Pechong and Kito’s trust in my vision, as I put a lot of my own feelings and reflections into this work, and I am also in the process of developing my new vision and style. For Peci, it was one of the first 3D works under my supervision, and it would be a big step for him too. In the process, you could see how he is going through the same process, bringing his ideas and improvements, and I’m glad we shared it together.”

Kito, Mila and pech0ng, do you have more plans together? Let us know.
All together: “😏😏😏”

Listen below:

kitojempere.com