It's the year 4000 and we're on Earth-527. Everything's glistening silver and intergalactic guardian angels roam cities. It's an unfathomable idea for us humans but Shelhiel is giving us a glimpse of this alternative future through 'Superstrobe'.

Part of the bigger world of SUPERSTROBE the EP, the Malaysian artist created a parallel universe that mirrors his very own beginnings as an artist, building a story that brings together reality and fantasy. Taking on the role of Angel-527, the mythical being descends upon a futuristic Kuala Lumpur and goes through a cyclic experience of love and loss. 

Bandwagon caught up with Shelhiel where he takes us through the beginnings of Earth-527 and production behind creating the 'Superstrobe' music video. 

Tell us the story of Earth-527 and the origin story of Angel-527 and where the idea stemmed from.

When I started writing my debut EP SUPERSTROBE, I knew that I wanted to keep it pure and back to my music origins since I’ve tried to explore different genres along the way for years. I wanted to put out something that really sets the beginning for the sound of Shelhiel.

Therefore the visualisation of the SUPERSTROBE universe resembles the origin and the beginnings of me as an artist. The ideation started from my birthplace and the influences I had in my upbringing—my hometown Sungai Petani, Kedah, my beliefs and my faith in God. 527 is a codename for my birthday, May 27th, yay.

How did you first come up with the concept for the music video for ‘Superstrobe’? How does the visual fit into the entire universe and storyline of your EP?

As I set on the vision I wanted to achieve for the whole EP, I started the mood board in January 2020. It really grew on to something bigger than I ever imagined.

SUPERSTROBE's visual identity is a marriage of influences of Malaysian Chinese, Sino-futurism & Christianity. I’m trying to design a world that is real to me, yet still in fantasy expressionism. The whole universe of the SUPERSTROBE storyline is a cyclic story of the descent of the Angel-527 to Earth (track 1), finding himself and his purpose, and goes on to seek love and live life in the settings of the music video for 'Star 星' (track 3), finds confusion in 'Chillin' (track 4), and reside on sadness in 'Runnin, Merindu' for losing his loved one (track 6).

'始_____终' means the track—which was actually meant to be the last track of the EP—can be a beginning or the end for listeners, to start the story all over again linearly, backwards or in a loop. The whole listening experience of SUPERSTROBE can be listened to in an ascending and descending order for different meanings of the story of Angel-527.

The SUPERSTROBE vision is inspired by Björk’s 'Utopia' video, as well as the Y2K, but bringing it into a Y4K setting of futuristic Kuala Lumpur.

Walk us through the process of creating and piecing together the music video.

I wanted to make a statement video of who I am and where I come from through abstract and conceptual story-telling. As I started to do sketches and a very rough storyboard, I divided the stories into 4 phases: Discovery, Flashback & Transformation, Enlightenment, and Into the Unknown.

Phase 1: Discovery
In an alternative Kedah, which is the Jelapang Padi (the land of the paddy) of Malaysia, where I go back to my grandma’s house every Chinese New Year, where I grew up.

Phase 2: Flashback & Transformation
Going back to find who I am and I am born into this world, trying to portray an abstract meaning of finding purpose and the meaning of life of Angel-527—which is tightly connected to my beliefs of faith in God.

Phase 3: Enlightenment
This is where the spark of life and climax of the video, where he found his higher calling as a futuristic guardian angel to serve Earth-527.

Phase 4: Into the Unknown
Walking into a mysterious advanced setting of Kuala Lumpur, he is ready to explore the world, thus the beginning of the EP SUPERSTROBE.

Who did you work with for this project?

I start the whole project by sketching the storyboard first as you see attached there and discussed with my director Nelson Chong (@birdycantfly) and art director Curly (@thenameisbon11) about the whole concept. Nelson led and solidified the direction for the shoot, different phases and scenes, and Curly and I brainstormed on the outfits, VFX and mood for the video.

We would call and talk to the 3D team from China led by Cattin Tsai (@cattin_tsai) to further discuss the 3D world-building before and after the shoot. Not forget to mention our VFX heroes and editors, my day-one editor Azrol (@monameqa) as well as the director for my first music video Hiren (@hirashe_). What else can I say? It’s the dream team!

‘Superstrobe’ is the product of over a year’s worth of hard work, what was the most challenging part of the entire process?

During the early pandemic, a lot of the planning for the shoot and the EP were postponed and delayed, and it was really hard to execute an exquisite and futuristic-looking shoot with no experience of a green screen and 3D composition.

Also, we went back and forth on the post-production and edits. We put a lot of faith and trust into everyone’s expertise, and I am glad that it really turned out well in the end. Everyone really gave their best to push the boundaries of the outcome, I couldn't be grateful enough.

On the flip side, what did you enjoy most about creating the music video?

I think seeing the first final draft of the video was most exciting for this project. You might think it’s the shooting process but because all of us had no idea how it is going to turn out in the end, we’re just shooting by trusting our gut feeling and going with the flow.

Is the alternate universe of Earth-527 something you’ll be exploring more in your future projects?

I'm planning something to tie in the Shelhiel-verse in the end, yet we’re going to see how it goes these 2-3 years of my upcoming releases. SUPERSTROBE is designed to be the beginning of greater things to come!

What are some other exciting things we can expect from you this year?

Maybe a SUPERSTROBE (Remixes)—shhh I didn’t tell you that. Due to the pandemic, SUPERSTROBE’s release campaign has been a bit incomplete without any live showcase so more live shows of SUPERSTROBE to come.

Take a trip to Earth-527 with Shelhiel's SUPERSTROBE here.