Info â†’ Voodoo In My Blood                   

• Development
• Additional Info
• Live Appearances
• Notable Quotes
• Lyrics
• Promo Video
• Quotes About The Video
• External Links

After expressing interest in Young Fathers‘s music after their 2014 Mercury Award, 3D contacted the Edinburgh based hip hop band with an aim to collocate together, which ultimately led to the creation of the Voodoo In My Blood track and Young Fathers joining Massive Attack as chief supporting band on their 2016 tour.

Jeff Wootoon, a session guitarist most closely associated with the band Gorillaz, and electronic music producer Kidkanevil helped provide guitar and additional programming respectively to Voodoo In My Blood, even though they are not credited on the Ritual Spirit EP credits.

The studio sessions with Young Fathers also produced one other known track besides Voodoo In My Blood – He Says He Needs Me which was played live on the 2016 tour and was first debuted in December 2015 as part of the soundtrack to a Mark Donne directed video titled “The Party Is Over”, which was produced for the COP21 event in Paris that same month.

The Ritual Spirit EP (which Voodoo In My Blood appears on) marks the first major release to bear the Massive Attack name to feature Euan Dickinson, who had previously worked as a studio engineer/programmer before being promoted to co-producer/writer alongside 3D when Neil Davidge left the band.  Daddy G by contrast, much liek he did with 100th Window, did not take part in the Ritual Spirit EP sessions.

Voodoo In My Blood received its live debut on the 19th January 2016 at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, which was the kickoff date of Massive Attack’s 2016 tour to promote the release of the Ritual Spirit EP. The track would go on to be featured on all subsequent dates of the 2016 tour typically being performed towards the end of each show as the third of fourth last track of the setlist. As on the record, Young Fathers performed the live vocals on all of these dates. They were also the support act for all dates of the 2016 tour as well.

3D introducing Young Fathers on stage throughout the 2016 tour  â€“ “The best band in the world right now. They are the future.” [Throughout 2016 Tour]

The production company behind the video for Voodoo In My Blood was Rattling Stick, who had previosuly helped produce the video for Battle Box 003 (a side project of Robert Del Naja’s).

The director of the video, Ringan Ledwidge, choose for chief inspiration the possession scene from the aptly named 1981 film “Possession”, when directing the Oscar nominated actress Rosemund Pike. The floating mechanical ball featured in the video was inspired by 1979 horror/scifi film “Phantasm”, which featured similar ghostly balls controlling helpless people’s bodies.

The location for the shoot, the Joe Strummer underpass at Edgeware Road station in London, was chosen for the unique scheme of its walls (bright yellow and orange) and filmed in a style to recall the horror films of the 1970’s.

Rosemund Pike rehearsed for several days prior to filming with National Theatre choreographer Scarlett Mackmin to perfect her movements for the video. The walls of the underground station were padded with foam to cushion Rosemund Pike’s collision as she gets propelled against them violently during the video.

Director Ringan Ledwidge on why the 1981 film “Possenion” was the main inspiration for the Voodoo In MY Blood video – “I’m a huge fan of the film Possession. As a kid I was obsessed with (lead actress) Isabelle Adjani, and would watch absolutely anything with her in it. I must have discovered the film when I was about 12, and it absolutely blew my mind. That particular scene in the film is insane. It’s so riveting yet so disturbing at the same time, it’s so original and different and… strange. It’s still to this day a film I’ll implore anyone I see to go and watch it. I can’t believe the irony of the fact that the director died last week. It seems appropriate in a strange way that it’s come out when it has, as a celebration of what he did as a filmmaker. It’s quite special.” [DazedDigital.com – Feburary 2016]