this is the song Virtual Insanity by jira Quai you may think it's just a catchy well-made pop song but there's so much more to this song surprisingly after recording a demo in JK's basement they shelved it and didn't think to record it only when the record label said their other singles weren't good enough did they even consider it musically it's really complex for a pop song and features many hidden little tricks and ideas that you probably never noticed lyrically well it offers a unique prediction for the future and with this song being now nearly 30
years old we can see if these predictions came true and that's not even mentioning the award-winning video which is this genuine illusion meant to leave the viewer wondering how does that even work could it be that a song about a virtual future one disconnected from reality is actually much more relevant than we first [Music] thought the inspiration for the song first came when jiri were on tour in Japan in 1995 J k j Quai frontman and Wallace Buchanan the bands did R do play at the time had gone for a walk one afternoon in the
northern city of Sendai it's a huge City it was the middle of winter everything was covered in snow and there was no one around they walked for around half a mile until they met this old lady and they asked where everyone was and she pointed to these stairs that led them underground walk down these steps still no and then suddenly thousands of people just a whole world completely Underground and I just thought well you know this is the this is the future obviously the play on words from virtual reality to Virtual Insanity JK and Toby
jqu then keyboard player wrote the song in the basement of JK's house in London great deal of it starts with me with a Melody I'll have a fure made virtuity I'll know what feel I want to get out of it I'll know what tempo and what the track's going to constitute I can see the picture in the back of my head they weren't writing for any particular project or album at the time and so once the demo was done they just left it and kind of forgot about it soon enough though they would begin working
on their third album traveling without moving and with this album they were looking to try a different approach from what they done with their second album their second album The Return of the space cowboy became something of a nightmare to work on it had some amazing flavors and musical details on it but it was incredibly complex and hard to get your head around especially for us making it if we wanted to extend ourselves we needed a more Universal sound jqu found a way of working very quickly in the studio not getting bugged down with overthinking
their current guitarist Rob Harris recalls often recording parts for a demo not realizing that they would end up on the final song turning up to J studio and I had a thin line Telly with me at the time and they were like I'll just Jam around and then another part that went jammed around on this track for seven minutes they went right we got it done I was like what do you mean mean we're done I haven't started yet and they're like no no it's fine we've got everything we need it's great next track this
spontaneous approach to recording gave them an authentic sound recognizing their Jazz influence but also allowing them to grasp ideas quickly and to not overthink things traveling without moving would live up to this goal of a more simple easy to get your head around sound with songs such as all right High Times and Cosmic girl don't get me wrong they hadn't abandoned their Acid Jazz flavor from the past they were just starting to explore more of a pop and Funk themed Style on this record until one day someone from the record label came in to listen
to the album and said that none of these songs are suitable as singles for jiray they felt confident this was the album where they finally found their way of doing things and were feeling confident about the music they were making they thought the label was spoiled for Choice when it came to singles but they asked if they had anything else Toby and Jay relented and lost for ideas dusted off the demo tape of Virtual Insanity they played the demo they recorded in Jay's basement and the record label instantly knew that was what they were looking
for understandably Jamira quii were right to doubt this song's ability to be a hit single just consider these chords from a band who's just been told a song like Cosmic girl wouldn't be played in clubs the song gets more unconventional still these are the chords for the first verse but in the second verse it actually misses out half a bar well how about this sample from the film [Music] Alien and perhaps the most surprising thing is that unlike many Jamiroquai songs from this time it doesn't feature any digy Doo especially given Wallace have been in
Sendai when they had the idea for the song in the end it would be the first song written for the album but the last to be recorded but if the complexity of this song was enough to break through to an audience what would happen next would take them to even New [Music] Heights the song needed a music video and the filmmaker Jonathan Glazer was brought in to try and make something special he just had success with radio head Street Spirit a beautifully made video with some unique editing techniques and it was JK who had the
initial idea of the moving floor but his first idea for achieving it was to use travelators so the floor would actually be moving to demonstrate the idea to the team behind the video they met in the pub and in true JK style he acted out the video idea on the pavement outside the pup so I kind of told Jonathan what he wanted he says you know I want this the floor moving I'm a move like this what have you and Jonathan took that and then went away and came up with the the idea that that
ended up being made Jonathan submitted the plans and was told the estimated cost would be £280,000 one of the guys on the production team offered the idea that instead of the floor moving the walls would move instead creating the illusion that the floor is moving Jonathan called JK in the middle of the night to tell him the new idea and somehow JK didn't get it I didn't get it I couldn't quite understand he said you'll see when you get to the set the idea of moving the walls instead worked perfectly especially for JK who was
in his element being able to dance on the stationary floor but there were a few details that didn't go to plan there's the set wobbling when the rest of the band disappears because of course the set is moving not the floor and there were four takes in total stitched together to make the final video and throughout the different takes he actually uses two different fleeces one is slightly lighter than the other to stitch together the different takes the camera pans to the floor where we introduced the bugs which were added in post- production the blood
however is in the actual shot and so that had to be the last take for me these little details these little flaws which reveal how the video was made actually helped to complement the video they could have used CGI which wouldn't have been an illusion it would have just been fake or they could have moved the floor which also isn't an illusion because that's what we'd actually be seeing the final result is much simpler but it's also much more interesting and a genuine illusion this video helped jir break through in the US for the first
time it earned the band 10 nominations at the MTV Music Video Awards winning four of them and they performed the song live on stage this time using moving travelators as Jay initially suggested I'm very very proud of it being that good it's a memorable piece of work it will always be played and people will always go like they still do to me how are those chairs moving like that so simple and so good so where does this song stand in today's world bearing in mind that it was released in 1996 this is over a decade
before the first iPhone was released and years before the like of YouTube or Facebook ever came along if JK was concerned about the digital world in the mid90s we can only imagine what he think of it today or maybe he wouldn't there's always been a touch of criticism aimed at jqu take for example their earlier songs such as emergency on planet Earth or when you're going to learn lyrics way ahead of their time bringing concerns about the environment to mainstream music only for JK to go on to become almost as well known for his love
of supercars as his music virtual insanity is in many ways a continuation of their early work thought provoking lyrics that address important issues way ahead of their time the Lin of notes from the cheap music describe it as when you're going to learn part two for Virtual Insanity they painted the picture of a future disconnected from reality and the band's ambition to avoid this disconnection but it has become a reality even for jiray who have adopted a more digital electronic sound to the later music even his hat is electronic these days but to its credit
this song also has a Timeless quality to it it doesn't particularly sound like it's from the '90s and neither does the video and I think this this is because despite recognizing the possibility of disconnecting from reality they don't allow technology to overpower their creativity perhaps this song stands as a good example of when technology and creativity can work well [Music] together
