As always, the band didn’t want to use technology simply because they could. Instead, they were determined to find new ways for the characters that make up the band to deeply engage with their fans through VR. After all these years, Jamie Hewlett was missing the pencil-drawn look of Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D. This traditional hand-drawn aesthetic was important, and a considerable challenge, requiring a world first to execute perfectly in VR. The idea was to bring the audience on an immersive journey with the band, set against a soundtrack of four tracks from the new album. The pieces uses ambisonic sound design that places you within the scene.

After only 90 days of all hands on deck production, working around the clock and around the world, writing unique code in response to boundary pushing creative, hand drawing the four band members and placing them seamlessly into a stereoscopic CG world full of monsters from Jamie's imagination, the video was premiered globally on YouTube as a 360 and as a linear edit on March 23rd.

The video tells the story of the band visiting a “spirit” house, each member experiencing their own psychedelic journey through the haunted environment (and beyond!), coming back together bleary-eyed as the dawn breaks.

The six-minute 360 video received more than three million views in its first 24 hours (on its way to nearly 8 million to date, alongside 28 million views of the linear edit), setting a new record as the biggest debut for a music VR video in YouTube’s history.

The band were successfully reconnected with their long-suffering fans - proving to the world that their star power and creative excellence was undiminished, and generating huge excitement about the forthcoming album release.