The Ninth Wave's Human Behaviour music video, directed by Ainsley Bowman and produced by Forest of Black, fuses Shibari-inspired rope performance with Glasgow
ARCHIVEThe Ninth Wave Turns Industrial Glasgow Into Surreal Cinema
The Ninth Wave's "Human Behaviour" is a 2019 UK music video directed by Ainsley Bowman and produced by Forest of Black, in which the Glasgow band perform a Shibari-inspired rope entanglement inside a decommissioned shipbuilding warehouse, exploring themes of disconnection, separation, and physical connection through atmospheric, surreal visual storytelling.
Released on 11 October 2019 through Distiller Records, the video arrived as a lead single from the band's debut album Infancy Part II, which followed on 15 November 2019. The campaign was developed with advertising agency Mountain, based in Glasgow, placing it firmly within the United Kingdom's independent music promotional ecosystem. The choice to remain rooted in Glasgow rather than migrate the production to a more conventionally recognised film city was itself a statement of intent, anchoring The Ninth Wave's artistic identity to a specific geography and a specific industrial history.
The video's central mechanic is deceptively simple. Band members slowly entangle themselves in rope across a darkened warehouse space, the progressive binding functioning simultaneously as choreography and as metaphor. As director Ainsley Bowman explained to promonews.tv, the rope represents disconnection and separation, with the act of entanglement paradoxically signifying characters becoming physically closer even as emotional distance grows. Clothing gifted by Vivienne Westwood and up-and-coming New York City designer Kelsey Randall adds a layer of fashion-world credibility to a production that consistently refuses easy categorisation. The result earns a Clapboard Score of 67 out of 100, reflecting a production of genuine craft ambition that stops short of complete thematic resolution.
ARCHIVEThe Ninth Wave released "Human Behaviour" at a pivotal moment for the United Kingdom's recorded music industry. According to the IFPI, global recorded-music revenue reached US$20.2 billion in 2019, representing a fifth consecutive year of growth, with streaming accounting for the majority of that total for the first time. In the United Kingdom specifically, streaming had become the dominant mode of music consumption, reshaping how independent artists like The Ninth Wave compete for audience attention against major-label acts with substantially larger promotional budgets.
The strategic rationale behind investing in a high-craft music video, rather than a conventional single release, is rooted in this streaming-era reality. On platforms where algorithmic discovery determines reach, visual content that generates organic sharing and editorial playlist consideration provides an amplification lever that audio alone cannot replicate. Forest of Black, the production company behind "Human Behaviour", has an established track record with major UK acts including Biffy Clyro and Chvrches, lending the project a production pedigree that signals seriousness to gatekeepers and press alike. This directly differentiates The Ninth Wave from contemporaries releasing lower-budget visual content, creating a perception of scale that the band's independent status might not otherwise command.
The Glasgow creative community provides its own competitive context. In the United Kingdom, Glasgow has produced a disproportionate number of critically regarded independent acts, and the city's post-industrial spaces have become a recognisable visual shorthand for authentic, unpolished artistry. By choosing a shipbuilding warehouse as the production environment, Mountain and Forest of Black aligned The Ninth Wave with that lineage without resorting to imitation, instead using the space as a theatrical container for something formally unusual.
Director Ainsley Bowman anchors "Human Behaviour" in a clear and singular visual grammar. The Shibari-influenced rope work, as reported by creativeboom.com, was not deployed as aesthetic novelty but as a structural device that evolves across the video's duration, the progressive entanglement mirroring the song's emotional arc. Bowman, credited on the production as AINS, also served as editor, a dual role that ensures the pacing of the cut remains continuous with the logic of the original visual concept rather than being mediated by a second creative voice.
The full production crew assembled by Forest of Black reflects the ambition of the project. Director of photography David Liddell shot the warehouse interior in a manner that makes the decommissioned space feel mythological rather than merely gritty, with lighting gaffer Leon Brehony shaping a palette of deep shadows and isolated pools of light that give the rope sequences their distinctive theatricality. Steadicam operator Sean Corbett contributed to the fluid, almost choreographic movement of the camera around the performers, and focus puller Nico Biarese maintained the optical precision that the close-contact rope sequences demanded. Art director Cara Roxburgh shaped the environmental staging, while hair and makeup artist Debbie Black completed the performers' appearance in a way that reads as both contemporary and slightly timeless.
The fashion dimension, specifically the contributions of Vivienne Westwood and New York-based designer Kelsey Randall, was noted by creativeboom.com as a meaningful element of the video's visual register. Rather than styling the band in generic performance wear, these garment choices introduce a tension between haute craft and industrial rawness that reinforces the thematic complexity Bowman is working with throughout the clip. Producers Beth Allan and Nicki Reilly oversaw a production that, by all external accounts, delivered on the ambition of that concept within the practical constraints of an independent UK music release.
The Ninth Wave's "Human Behaviour" accumulated 38,313 views, 752 likes, and 48 comments on YouTube as documented in the video's public metadata. These figures reflect the reach typical of a critically respected independent UK act releasing a visually ambitious single into a streaming-dominated market, rather than the viral scale achievable by major-label campaigns with paid media support behind them. The engagement ratio, measured by likes relative to views, suggests a genuinely invested audience responding to the material rather than passive discovery traffic.
No independent third-party performance audit or campaign effectiveness study for "Human Behaviour" is publicly available, and verified chart or streaming figures specific to this single have not been published by Distiller Records or Mountain. What the available evidence does confirm is that the video achieved meaningful press coverage in the United Kingdom, with promonews.tv and creativeboom.com both providing substantive editorial coverage within a fortnight of release, and that the production's association with Forest of Black's existing credits, including Biffy Clyro and Chvrches, generated credibility signals in industry-facing media that a lower-profile production would not have reached.
Structurally, the video's effectiveness as a promotional vehicle rests on its repeatability. The rope entanglement sequence rewards multiple viewings, and the fashion and location choices give press outlets natural visual hooks for editorial placement. These are durable assets for an independent act building a catalogue identity in the United Kingdom's competitive alternative music landscape. The Clapboard Score of 67 out of 100 reflects a production where craft execution is evident and the conceptual framework is coherent, while acknowledging that the video's emotional resolution and narrative completeness leave room that a more fully realised piece might have occupied.
Ainsley Bowman directed Human Behaviour. Bowman, credited as AINS, also edited the video. He worked alongside production company Forest of Black, whose prior credits include Biffy Clyro and Chvrches, bringing substantial independent music video production experience to The Ninth Wave's 2019 Glasgow-filmed release.
Human Behaviour was filmed in an old shipbuilding warehouse in Glasgow. The location, the band's hometown in the United Kingdom, was chosen to ground The Ninth Wave's identity in Glasgow's post-industrial landscape, creating a theatrical environment for the Shibari-influenced rope performance at the video's centre.
The rope represents disconnection and separation. Director Ainsley Bowman, as reported by promonews.tv, designed the progressive entanglement to show characters becoming physically closer while growing emotionally distant, making the Shibari-influenced binding both a choreographic device and a sustained metaphor running through the entire video.
Human Behaviour appeared on Infancy Part II, The Ninth Wave's debut album. Released on 15 November 2019 through Distiller Records, the album followed the single's video release by approximately five weeks, with Mountain in Glasgow serving as the advertising agency supporting the campaign in the United Kingdom.
Vivienne Westwood and New York-based designer Kelsey Randall contributed clothing to Human Behaviour. As noted by creativeboom.com, garments from both designers were gifted for the production, introducing a tension between high fashion and Glasgow's industrial aesthetic that reinforces the video's thematic and visual complexity.
Human Behaviour received a Clapboard Score of 67 out of 100. The score reflects strong craft execution across direction, cinematography, and production design, while acknowledging that the video's thematic resolution and narrative completeness leave meaningful creative space that a fully realised piece might have occupied.
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