Digital Video magazine — November 2012
‘Hell Broke Luce:’ Bringing Tom Waits’ Apocalyptic War Dream to Life

Illustrator, photographer and director Matt Mahurin has created some of the most iconic images of contemporary American popular culture, using technology to amplify emotional content and sparking the ongoing debate surrounding digital manipulation. His illustrations have appeared in TIME, Newsweek, Mother Jones and Rolling Stone, among many other publications, and several of his photographs — on subjects as diverse as AIDS, the Texas prison system and Nicaragua — have been included in the permanent collection of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mahurin, a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Music Video Producers Guild, is a veteran director of music videos, having worked with such performers as U2, R.E.M. and Metallica on more than 100 videos over the course of his career. And while he has worked on productions of epic proportions in the past, his recent collaboration with Tom Waits on the video for “Hell Broke Luce,” from the 2011 Bad As Me album, has a handcrafted feel and level of authenticity that can only be achieved by a solo practitioner.

“My work has always had an organic look,” Mahurin states. “The handmade quality is an extension of process. I don’t believe in perfectionism. It is impossible and counterproductive. I prefer a few rough edges…keeps me relaxed and moving forward.”

Written about Jeff Lucey, a Marine who suffered from PTSD and committed suicide following his service during the Iraq War, the song is a rousing protest anthem set to a military cadence. The video, described by Waits as “an apocalyptic war dream,” arrived in August amid a flurry of speculation about a possible tour. (Read full story…)