“Let My Soul Bleed” by Gene is a dark and in-your-face track that is a lot more avant-garde than what most people expect from a rap song. After collaborating late last year on the music video "Gorgeous," Gene again teams up with director Abraham Vilchez-Moran on the video for “Let My Soul Bleed,” and the result is a project that is equally as surprising and unsettling as the song. It features Gene performing in an abandoned mental hospital and the surrounding woods, backed up by a dancer Mariah Mckenzie, who gives a fantastic and twisted performance throughout the video. Check out our exclusive premiere of “Let My Soul Bleed” below, as well as a few words about the video from director Abraham Vilchez-Moran.

Abraham Vilchez-Moran: 

The concept for Gene's video for "Let My Soul Bleed" was always about getting across to the viewer the inner demons he fights throughout the song and mixtape. The title for the song alone inspired me to step outside of the prototypical "rap" video cliches and step into a world that is more apt for say James Blake or Bon Iver. We wanted to capture a visual aesthetic that would feel timeless, which is why we chose black and white. Not that we wanted the video to be timeless, necessarily, but to feel like it could take place at any time, you see. We referenced one of my favorite music videos from last year, the Ian & Cooper-directed "Back To Me" by Joel Compass, for some of the scenes. We did this in order to make the viewer feel uncomfortable by the images, in an almost Lynchian way.

We filmed this video in an abandoned mental hospital from the 60's in order to evoke that other-worldy feeling. The woods surrounding the hospital also leant to that mood... there was something eerie just about the way leaves fell down in that space.

As far as the production behind it, there was no better place to turn to for the color correction than LA's Coyote Post. They have been at the forefront of some of the most visually interesting pieces I've seen in a long time, and I really wanted to work with them. For the visual FX we went with Gloria FX. Gloria has done some of my favorite videos such as Foals "Bad Habit" and James Blake's "Overgrown" as examples.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder/content director of IMVDb and watches more music videos than anyone on earth. You can find him on twitter at @doug_klinger.