Video Chats: Matthew Boman on ‘PEPPERMiNT TiNT’ by Riff Raff

When director Matthew Boman isn’t making crazy videos about the end of the world, he’s making crazy music videos with the likes of Brooke Candy, BLOK, and Riff Raff. His latest video, “PEPPERMiNT TiNT” by the aforementioned Riff Raff, could possibly be one of the greatest Christmas videos of the year, if not of all time. We talked to Matthew about working with Riff Raff, dealing with hotel security, and Dhalsim from Street Fighter.

Doug: Riff Raff is a favorite over here at IMVDb, how'd you get involved with him?

Matthew: It's a pretty eclectic sort of way it all happened. It involved my Dhalsim from Street Fighter Halloween costume. The past couple years, I've been keeping up with Riff’s stuff, seen him around town a bit, and on Halloween I got into a party in downtown LA. I was wearing my Dhalsim Street Fighter costume, he's one of my favorite Street Fighter characters. I gravitate toward weird, homoerotic videogame characters to dress up as for Halloween. I was wearing that, and my girlfriend saw Riff next to her and said "Hey, Matt take my picture with him." So boom, I turn around I take their photo. I get a quick photo with him, and always trying to network I said, "Riff man, I do video stuff. I love your whole style and vibe, let's do some stuff together. I do some weird shit." He was kind of in the zone, basically like, "OK, OK." Then I tweeted the picture to him with a link to my Brooke Candy video, and a couple days later I get a message from him on Twitter, "What’s your number, let's make some weird videos." I sent him my number and within 5 minutes he called me and I had one of the strangest first conversations I've ever had with a client.

Matthew in his Dhalsim costume with Riff on Halloween.

Doug: What made that first conversation so strange?

Matthew: The man has a lot going on in his mind I feel like, and what I could gain from it was he wanted to know if I had video content that I had the rights to that I could play behind him while he climbed up a mountain, and that he wanted Egyptian women. The notes I took said "mountain" and "Egyptian woman," that's all I really got from it. We set up a time to meet to talk about the video that next Monday. I show up to meet him, and we immediately go get sushi with his whole crew. We drink some sake and some beers, and the next thing I know, he wants to shoot the video right then. We go to The Standard in Hollywood, and we literally shot the video in an hour. A good friend of mine, Sean, had the idea to rip open the pillow and go crazy with it, and that kind of made the video. Riff just wanted these crazy graphics going, if he said something, he wanted to show it. I was really into that, so we just went for it.

Doug: So the girls and The ATL Twins, was that the crew that you also has sushi with?

Matthew: Yeah, exactly. I think The ATL Twins showed up half way through our sushi debacle, and they had some of the young ladies with them. My girlfriend is actually in the video, she has the cornrows, and she lives near the hotel we shot it at. I called her and said, "Let me pick you up and we'll go to the shoot." She brought her old roommate Sean who had the idea to rip the pillow open. It all organically worked out. I remember at one point, because of my job and because it was already late, I told Riff that I wasn't planning to shoot and thought we were just meeting. He basically egged me on to just do it. I figured I didn't move to LA to get a lot of good sleep, so fuck it let's go shoot it. I wasn't going to pass up on that opportunity.

Riff and Matthew at the sushi restaurant. 

Doug: I asked a similar question for the Brooke Candy video, but it's safe to say the Riff is pretty much "on" all the time, right? The way you're describing your personal interactions with him seem to be exactly how he is in interviews and in public.

Matthew: I would say so. I don't even know the real him, I think that is the real him. I can't say where one begins and one ends. He’s the only one I know, he seems to just be giving it to you real. Maybe it's something that he's created and enhanced, but he's definitely like that. He's very interesting. One of the things I noticed before we left to do the shoot I said "Riff, what's a video you like or want it to look like? Can you reference anything to pull up on YouTube?" And he was kind of ignoring me, then I pressed him about it and he just looked at me and said, "Man, I just want you to do whatever it is you want to do. Make it however you like." In that respect, it was really cool to work with someone who pretty much trusted your judgment artistically and let you run with their look and everything.

Doug: In our last interview you mentioned having an issue getting a hotel to rent a room to you because of what Brooke was wearing. Where there any hotel issues this time around?

Matthew: We kind of snuck in there pretty well. The ATL Twins, I think it was their room for the time they were in town. There was maybe a noise complaint, and a security guard came by, and the room was full of feathers. I think some lies were fabricated as to how those feathers got there, but literally the shoot started, climaxed, and ended so quickly. I was just like, "OK, we're done. We got everything." Riff was like, "Do you need to shoot more?" and I told him no, we had enough for the video and just boogied out of there. I texted him later, and they made it out the next day fine. As far as the room, I don't know, but the security guard did stop by, but we defused the situation. They ended up leaving, we filmed a little more, and then I left.

Hotel security interrupting the shoot. 

Doug: Had you even heard the song prior to meeting with Riff that night?

Matthew: Literally, I've never been a part of anything like this. He played several songs for me in the hotel room for us to film off of. He let me basically choose which one we wanted to make the video for. It was that organic. I think it goes back to what we talked about last time, I feel like with the economy being bad and budgets being low, and the immediacy of the internet, he just wants to turn out a bunch of stuff. In terms in how this stuff works, for me it's not "here’s the song, here’s the plan, here's the treatment." We just go off, play the song a whole bunch, filmed a bunch of shit, and boosted it up a bit in post with the graphics. It was literally, "Let's pick the song right here and then shoot the video!"

Some of Matthew's sweet graphics. 

Doug: About those graphics, a lot of them are Christmas influenced. Would you consider it to be a Christmas video? Because if so it might be one of the greatest ever.

Matthew: I defiantly would consider it one. We pulled heavily from Christmas, and there are some Hanukkah themes in there. It would be an honor for it to be a Christmas music video. I think with the feathers falling down, with the subject of the song, I think it all tied together in the end with the Christmas theme.

Doug: Did Riff oversee any of the edits or ask for any changes?

Matthew: We did one or two rounds of notes. There were a couple things. A few things he wanted, like he wanted the Tooth Fairy in there, or his Versace belt. I have to say though, it was fun working with him to have that creative trust. I was allowed by him to make up something and run with it. It wasn't a nitpicking back and forth thing. I think he’s more on to the next thing, we didn't spend a lot of time pouring over the details. It was more, "change that one thing," bounce back, and that was it.