De Staat win International Rock Video Of The Year award

De Staat
(Image credit: De Staat)

Dutch alternative rock band De Staat have won the International Rock Video Of The Year award at this year's UK Music Video Awards. 

The prize comes for the video for Kitty Kitty, the first single to be taken from the band's fifth studio album Bubble Gum. Both were released in January. The clip beat out competition from Rammstein's controversial Deutschland and Gary Clarke Jr.'s stinging This Land

“That song is very much based on when Trump arrived,” said De Staat frontman Torre Florim when the video was released. “It’s a collection of words and sentences which came into my head during that campaign – it’s about the creation of different groups in society and how they’re completely in their own bubble."

The video was directed by Woutar Stoter, who told Directors Notes, "When I heard the track for the first time, the looping bass line, made me think of a repeated zooming in camera. 

"Torre Florim told me that the lyrics were based on speeches and interviews of Trump, so the idea of zooming in, like hypnosis or manipulation made even more sense. Although we didn’t want the video to be clearly about politics, rather be something cool and layered, people will get it anyway."

De Staat are currently on a European club tour, which includes four UK shows in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Belfast and London. Full dates below, tickets are on sale now.

Oct 26: Bucharest Control Club, Romania
Oct 27: Sofia Sofa Live Club, Bulgaria
Oct 29: Zagreb Culture Factory, Croatia
Oct 30: Brno Club Fleda, Czech Republic
Oct 31: Prague Futurum Music Bar, Czech Republic
Nov 01: Heidelberg Halle 02, Germany
Nov 08: Antwerp Trix, Belgium
Non 09: Birmingham The Castle & Falcon, UK
Nov 11: Edinburgh The Mash House, UK
Nov 12: Belfast Voodoo, UK
Nov 13: Dublin Academy Green Room, Ireland
Nov 15: London The Garage, UK
Dev 11: Toulouse La Rex, France
Dec 12: Madrid Caracol, Spain
Dec 13: Barcelona La Nau, Spain
Dec 14: St Etienne Le Fil, France

De Staat

(Image credit: De Staat)
Fraser Lewry

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.