Rewrite and translate this title The secret multiverse that connects BTS, JADE, Fontaines D.C. and more to Japanese between 50 and 60 characters. Do not include any introductory or extra text; return only the title in Japanese.

Acclaimed director Aube Perrie has worked on music videos for RM of BTS’ “Lost”, JADE of Little Mix’s debut single “Angel Of My Dreams”, and Fontaines D.C.’s “Starburster” this year, and even won best director at the UK Music Video Awards last night (October 24) for his colourful and eccentric treatments. But, up until now, his greatest trick is still yet to be revealed: a secret multiverse that smuggled Fontaines frontman Grian Chatten into some of 2024’s most iconic music videos.

It all started with “Starburster”, released in April of this year. Viewers might recall how, in the lull before the track’s hyperventilating climax, Chatten disappears into a dingey garage, emerging in bewilderment to find himself in a brightly lit rehearsal studio. In a bizarre sequence seemingly incongruous with the rest of the “Starburster” video, he wanders around in his distinctive bright green jumpsuit, picks up an apple, then a pair of angel wings, and returns to the stormy Irish coastline.

It was only three months later when the spectacularly unhinged music video for JADE’s “Angel of My Dreams” was released that the significance of this scene could begin to be deciphered. In that video, the very same rehearsal studio appears once more, emerging as the location in which an angel winged-JADE takes a stand against the cartoonish character ‘M’, a hulking, oversized metaphor for the corrupted nature of the music industry. Bridging the two disparate universes, Chatten can be spotted in this video, too, looking down on JADE’s symbolically conflicted dance routine from the mezzanine above (around 2:40 onwards).

And that’s just the beginning. Chatten’s fluorescent jumpsuit can also be spotted wandering through the Escher-like corridors of K-pop star RM’s “Lost” video (2:15), as well as in the Flintstones-esque cave that Bosnian-Swedish DJ Salvatore Ganacci and Estonian rapper Tommy Cash retreat to in “Ass & Titties” (3:16), all linked by that same garage door-turned-worm hole in the original “Starburster” video. It’s a wild journey that warps time, space and musical genre alike and, in each shot, Chatten looks about as confused as the viewer presumably is. What on Earth (or multiple Earths) is going on here?

“When we received ‘Starburster’, it was just one of those songs that makes you think, ‘OK, I need to do something here,’” Perrie tells Dazed, “So, I asked to chat directly with Grian about it. I’m not really into collaborating with artists and taking on a brief. I was mostly interested in asking him about the emotions behind the track.”

“As he has explained before, Grian told me that he was going to a studio in London and suddenly had an anxiety attack in St Pancras station. He bailed on the others, sat down in a cafe and wrote those lyrics,” Perrie continues, “That was interesting to know, but what confronted me was this cracked character – the song was like a rollercoaster of emotions inside someone. That was the start of creating a main character that had so much depth and richness – the ‘Starburster’ that Grian Chatten becomes in the video.”

But the concept really took hold when Perrie, who was born and raised in the small French town of Saint-Malo, realised that he was beginning to relate to the ‘Starburster’ character on a personal level, identifying with the madness of finding oneself in a strange place far away from home. “It encouraged me to dig into my own past,” Perrie reflects, “You know, this small hometown boy who aspires to cross over into different worlds. Talking to the Fontaines, it became obvious that we had a lot of things in common – we’re not so far apart in age and we were teenagers right before the internet and phones appeared in everybody’s lives. I guess we had a different connection to the world and aspirations compared to the hyperconnectivity today.”

Indeed, on some level, each of the videos that the ‘Starburster’ character appears in ties together these themes of losing oneself amid contemporary stardom. From JADE’s battles with M in “Angel Of My Dreams”, to RM feeling “Lost” within the Escher-like corridors of global infamy, to Salvatore Ganacci and Tommy Cash being relentlessly papped even in a prehistoric cave, in some sense, Perrie, Chatten and the ‘Starburster’ character were all joined by their struggles with celebrity itself, a collective self-insert embarking on an interdimensional search for answers among other pop stars.

“Working with Aube is like having a balloon with a very long string. You can touch the clouds and still remain grounded in reality” – Grian Chatten

The Fontaines’ Chatten agrees that it was a joint creative enterprise that led to the ambitious “Starburster” concept. “Working with Aube is like having a balloon with a very long string. You can touch the clouds and still remain grounded in reality,” the lead singer tells Dazed with characteristic balladry. “He feels the work of others very deeply, and this is what I think allowed him to create such a masterpiece as his video for “Starburster”, which is enhanced by the addition of his own heart and soul.”

On a practical level, however, the concept proved a significant challenge to execute. “I wish we had like six months to work all the travelling out and then shoot the video, but it wasn’t possible. So, we had to take a lot of bets,” Perrie laughs. “All those shots where he comes back from the JADE shoot were done prior to filming ‘Angel of My Dreams’, so we basically took a bet on putting the angel wings on Grian. There’s also maybe six or seven shots within ‘Starburster’ that come from the set of Salvatore video. It was really important that we added memories of his travels within the original video so, yeah, a lot of bets.”

Speaking to Perrie, it gradually became clear that, for all the glimpses of Chatten’s fluorescent green jumpsuit that I had caught, there were so many more Easter eggs that had flown right over my head. There was the old painting at the opening of “Starburster” in which Grian appears to have time travelled into, as well as the fact that the track seems to literally rewind itself. “You have the beginning of the track, and you go through one loop, and then it starts all over again. That was the first clue that things were repeating themselves,” Perrie explains. 

More than just Easter eggs, however, Perrie also gently hinted that there were further appearances that I had yet to discover. At the beginning, Perrie and Chatten had to take a gamble and hope that they’d be able to convince other artists and directors to let ‘Starburster’ appear in their music videos, but, over time, these roles started to reverse. “Funnily enough, now we’re starting to have people reach out and ask if they can have time travelling in their music video, which is what we really wanted,” Perrie explains cryptically, “One thing I really wanted to put in motion was time travelling to the past, having Grian appear in old, iconic music videos.” 

It was a bombshell revelation so late in my investigation. Now, not only were future appearances a possibility, but no music video ever released could be ruled out. So, keep your eyes peeled, because Chatten’s ‘Starburster’ character could be appearing in the places you least expect. 

Check the gallery and videos above for a whistle-stop tour through Grian Chatten’s journey across the stars.

Acclaimed director Aube Perrie has worked on music videos for RM of BTS’ “Lost”, JADE of Little Mix’s debut single “Angel Of My Dreams”, and Fontaines D.C.’s “Starburster” this year, and even won best director at the UK Music Video Awards last night (October 24) for his colourful and eccentric treatments. But, up until now, his greatest trick is still yet to be revealed: a secret multiverse that smuggled Fontaines frontman Grian Chatten into some of 2024’s most iconic music videos.

It all started with “Starburster”, released in April of this year. Viewers might recall how, in the lull before the track’s hyperventilating climax, Chatten disappears into a dingey garage, emerging in bewilderment to find himself in a brightly lit rehearsal studio. In a bizarre sequence seemingly incongruous with the rest of the “Starburster” video, he wanders around in his distinctive bright green jumpsuit, picks up an apple, then a pair of angel wings, and returns to the stormy Irish coastline.

It was only three months later when the spectacularly unhinged music video for JADE’s “Angel of My Dreams” was released that the significance of this scene could begin to be deciphered. In that video, the very same rehearsal studio appears once more, emerging as the location in which an angel winged-JADE takes a stand against the cartoonish character ‘M’, a hulking, oversized metaphor for the corrupted nature of the music industry. Bridging the two disparate universes, Chatten can be spotted in this video, too, looking down on JADE’s symbolically conflicted dance routine from the mezzanine above (around 2:40 onwards).

And that’s just the beginning. Chatten’s fluorescent jumpsuit can also be spotted wandering through the Escher-like corridors of K-pop star RM’s “Lost” video (2:15), as well as in the Flintstones-esque cave that Bosnian-Swedish DJ Salvatore Ganacci and Estonian rapper Tommy Cash retreat to in “Ass & Titties” (3:16), all linked by that same garage door-turned-worm hole in the original “Starburster” video. It’s a wild journey that warps time, space and musical genre alike and, in each shot, Chatten looks about as confused as the viewer presumably is. What on Earth (or multiple Earths) is going on here?

“When we received ‘Starburster’, it was just one of those songs that makes you think, ‘OK, I need to do something here,’” Perrie tells Dazed, “So, I asked to chat directly with Grian about it. I’m not really into collaborating with artists and taking on a brief. I was mostly interested in asking him about the emotions behind the track.”

“As he has explained before, Grian told me that he was going to a studio in London and suddenly had an anxiety attack in St Pancras station. He bailed on the others, sat down in a cafe and wrote those lyrics,” Perrie continues, “That was interesting to know, but what confronted me was this cracked character – the song was like a rollercoaster of emotions inside someone. That was the start of creating a main character that had so much depth and richness – the ‘Starburster’ that Grian Chatten becomes in the video.”

But the concept really took hold when Perrie, who was born and raised in the small French town of Saint-Malo, realised that he was beginning to relate to the ‘Starburster’ character on a personal level, identifying with the madness of finding oneself in a strange place far away from home. “It encouraged me to dig into my own past,” Perrie reflects, “You know, this small hometown boy who aspires to cross over into different worlds. Talking to the Fontaines, it became obvious that we had a lot of things in common – we’re not so far apart in age and we were teenagers right before the internet and phones appeared in everybody’s lives. I guess we had a different connection to the world and aspirations compared to the hyperconnectivity today.”

Indeed, on some level, each of the videos that the ‘Starburster’ character appears in ties together these themes of losing oneself amid contemporary stardom. From JADE’s battles with M in “Angel Of My Dreams”, to RM feeling “Lost” within the Escher-like corridors of global infamy, to Salvatore Ganacci and Tommy Cash being relentlessly papped even in a prehistoric cave, in some sense, Perrie, Chatten and the ‘Starburster’ character were all joined by their struggles with celebrity itself, a collective self-insert embarking on an interdimensional search for answers among other pop stars.

“Working with Aube is like having a balloon with a very long string. You can touch the clouds and still remain grounded in reality” – Grian Chatten

The Fontaines’ Chatten agrees that it was a joint creative enterprise that led to the ambitious “Starburster” concept. “Working with Aube is like having a balloon with a very long string. You can touch the clouds and still remain grounded in reality,” the lead singer tells Dazed with characteristic balladry. “He feels the work of others very deeply, and this is what I think allowed him to create such a masterpiece as his video for “Starburster”, which is enhanced by the addition of his own heart and soul.”

On a practical level, however, the concept proved a significant challenge to execute. “I wish we had like six months to work all the travelling out and then shoot the video, but it wasn’t possible. So, we had to take a lot of bets,” Perrie laughs. “All those shots where he comes back from the JADE shoot were done prior to filming ‘Angel of My Dreams’, so we basically took a bet on putting the angel wings on Grian. There’s also maybe six or seven shots within ‘Starburster’ that come from the set of Salvatore video. It was really important that we added memories of his travels within the original video so, yeah, a lot of bets.”

Speaking to Perrie, it gradually became clear that, for all the glimpses of Chatten’s fluorescent green jumpsuit that I had caught, there were so many more Easter eggs that had flown right over my head. There was the old painting at the opening of “Starburster” in which Grian appears to have time travelled into, as well as the fact that the track seems to literally rewind itself. “You have the beginning of the track, and you go through one loop, and then it starts all over again. That was the first clue that things were repeating themselves,” Perrie explains. 

More than just Easter eggs, however, Perrie also gently hinted that there were further appearances that I had yet to discover. At the beginning, Perrie and Chatten had to take a gamble and hope that they’d be able to convince other artists and directors to let ‘Starburster’ appear in their music videos, but, over time, these roles started to reverse. “Funnily enough, now we’re starting to have people reach out and ask if they can have time travelling in their music video, which is what we really wanted,” Perrie explains cryptically, “One thing I really wanted to put in motion was time travelling to the past, having Grian appear in old, iconic music videos.” 

It was a bombshell revelation so late in my investigation. Now, not only were future appearances a possibility, but no music video ever released could be ruled out. So, keep your eyes peeled, because Chatten’s ‘Starburster’ character could be appearing in the places you least expect. 

Check the gallery and videos above for a whistle-stop tour through Grian Chatten’s journey across the stars.