Rococode: 'Empire' Video Sees Keyboardist Get 'Twiggy' Transformation -- Premiere

Canadian foursome Rococode's debut album 'Guns, Sex and Glory' -- produced with help from Mother Mother frontman Ryan Guldemond -- is made up of some deliciously catchy pop-rock, but don't let their groomed and polished image deceive you. A quiet darkness underlies their first single, 'Empire,' a song that plays on the relationship between light and dark.

"The colour scheme of the video is very black and white, with gold highlights to bring to mind an 'empirical' quality," singer-guitarist Andrew Braun tells Spinner. "The mood focuses on the darker side of the grand gesture of love proclaimed in the song -- empires fall, fires burn out, etc.

"It was important to us for it not to come off as a cheesy love song, because there is a real darkness to the idea. Empires are big and bold and likely to fail. Maybe that's a little much for a three minute pop song ... but that's what we are trying to convey and hopefully it's coming across."

The video, filled with muted colours and minimalistic props, sees the band performing in a bare room amongst a number of clear light bulbs glowing gold. As the song builds to its peak, the members are overtaken by wires and cables that come to life. All of this happens, of course, with the band looking perfectly immaculate.

"Vocalist-keyboardist Laura Smith spent most of the day being primped and prodded and prettied up. She definitely had the most involved role for the video which seemed like gruelling work, but she also enjoyed undergoing several distinct transformations. The guys had it pretty easy. We really enjoyed watching Laura go from Twiggy to Debbie Harry to Princess Leia. Other than that, we just dressed nice and rocked out and ate snacks."