Watch Grimes' new self-directed video for 'Violence,' her collaboration with i_o

Canadian dance-pop wunderkind Grimes just added another rung in her sky-high ladder of talent: film directing. For her latest single, “Violence,” which she co-wrote with the steadily ascending techno whiz, i_o, Grimes directed the music video herself.

Opening on an image of her reading the legendary manuscript of Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Grimes expertly combines the themes of dance and violence with weapon-based choreography and a techno backdrop perfectly fit for the accompanying visuals. Her eye is clearly becoming equally adept compared to her ears and voice.

Grimes told Beats 1 that her next album is both finished and could be described as “techno-pop.” This will be her first album since 2015’s Art Angels. In that same interview, she also spoke about her collaboration with i_o on “Violence.”

“I hit i_o up and we made this song up in an hour,” she said in the interview. “And then I was just like, ‘This must go on the album because it just feels good.’ And, you know what, you know what? It’s just fresh. We just made this song a few months ago and I just needed to have something which felt fresh. It just felt… You know when you write a song so fast, it just feels perfect. It was like one of those. So I was like, ‘Let’s just throw it on.’ I want to shoot a music video for something that I haven’t listened to a thousand times. “

Photo credit: Eli Russell Linnetz