Dear Hivers,
We’re excited to share a glimpse into one of our most meaningful creative experiences this year — the filming of the music video for “Just Like Clay” in the hauntingly beautiful Villa Kolbe. This project brought together familiar faces and fresh inspiration, and we’re thrilled to offer you, our HIVE community, a look behind the curtain.
If you’ve followed our journey for a while, you’ll know that collaboration is at the heart of what we do. Whether it’s across borders, genres, or disciplines — it’s in our blood. For this video, we had the chance to reunite with Martin Forster of Centre Films GmbH, a filmmaker whose eye for mood and motion has shaped many of our visual stories in the past. This time felt special though — not only because of the song itself, but because Centre Films now shares a studio space with us. From hallway brainstorms to late-night editing sessions, this project was born of shared space and shared vision.
A House of Ruin and Resonance
The location for the shoot, Villa Kolbe, is a forgotten gem. Once the crown jewel of its region, this grand estate was designed by Otto March, the same architect who built Berlin’s Olympiastadion. In its prime, the villa was a marvel of design and luxury. Today, it’s a shell of its former self — walls cracked and crumbling, floorboards ripped up, glass scattered across forgotten halls.
For us, that made it perfect.
"Shake Myself Alive" is a song with our other band Just Like Clay about fragility, transformation, and the weight of despair. We needed a setting that carried that emotional gravity. Villa Kolbe gave us everything and more — not as a backdrop, but as a silent character in the story. It echoed the raw emotion of the song, its silence humming with history and heartache.
More Than a Music Video
This shoot wasn’t just about capturing visuals; it was about exploring the emotional architecture of the song. Every room we filmed in seemed to hold the ghosts of a past that paralleled the music — beauty lost, and yet, something unbreakable lingering underneath.
Working together with Martin and the Centre Films team again reminded us why collaboration fuels the best art. There’s a deep trust, a shorthand language, that lets us chase difficult ideas — like despair — and still come out the other side with something human, honest, and even hopeful.
Stay Tuned, Hivers
We’ll be sharing the full music video for "Shake Myself Alive" very soon, but in the meantime, we wanted you to see these behind-the-scenes moments captured by 