DAN MERSON | PUSH Magazine

Shot by Connor Sprague

DAN MERSON / DIRECTOR

Dan Merson is a Sydney-based videographer and also an active member of the ever elusive Katoomba Surf Club. Dan draws from his youth of skateboarding and growing up in the Blue Mountains in his practice, where he has directed music videos for the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Manu Crooks, The Jungle Giants and fellow Blue Mountains locals Hermitude. While he doesn’t give much away about the Katoomba Surf Club, he is generous in his chat about how he got to where he is and his process.

Still from YUTH’s “Free of Preconceptions", directed by Dan Merson

Interview with Morgan McCormack

Can you tell me a bit about your practice, and how it has developed into what it is today?

So I grew up in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. I started making skate videos for my mates when I was around 12 or 13 years old. I did that for years, got really into it and I loved it. I made a couple videos for skater dudes up in the mountains that I really looked up to. Then when I moved to the city later in high school, I stopped skating and stopped doing all that stuff that went with it. It was probably two and half years ago now that I got back into it. I made a rap video for one of my mates in the mountains, and then made another rap video, then another, and then made a short film. I don’t feel like I’ve been as decisive as I’d like to be with what I’ve been making films about. It’s kind of been a bit of a manic process in the sense that it’s kind of whatever comes my way. Now I’m leaning towards doing more narrative stuff, trying not to just do music videos.

Aside from music videos, I saw you made a short film on the bushfires, “Stories from the Smoke”. Is that the type of narrative work you’d like to lean towards?

The fires thing came first. I did that ages ago with my DSLR and my dad. At that point, I was stuck in the mountains because there was that hectic bushfire season and my house was kind of in the firing line. So I was stuck up there, emptying the gutters, with a hose and shit, on and off for a few months. I’d been a bit frustrated and wanted to do something about it for a while. It was kind of sitting with me and then I read this First Dog on the Moon comic from The Guardian. It kind of stuck with me one morning and I was like, fuck, this makes me really sick. So I hit him up. I was like, “Can I use your comic and make it into a short film?” And that’s what I ended up doing. Bushfires are a natural disaster. But inherently at the time in Australia, it was really political.

Going forward, do you want to make your work political?

I like to make a statement. I don’t necessarily want to make films just as a personal artistic expression. I think my long term goal is to make films that are important and possibly can create some sort of change in the world. But, you know, it’s easier said than done. It’s hard when you feel like you’re not as informed as you should be. You know what I mean? With the bushfire film, I was driving it from my perspective, so I feel like in that instance, I was entitled to say something. Whereas, it’s hard to say, I don’t want to say something about something I’m not entitled to talk about. It’s much more scary. And that’s probably why I do it a lot less. Because if you’re gonna put something out into the world, you better fucking know what you’re trying to say.

Shot by Connor Sprague

You’ve gone from making these skate videos for years, then you’re making a music video for Earl Sweatshirt. How do you go from one to another like that?

My mate who I made skate videos for works in a skate shop, and this dude from Warner Music came in and said, “We need someone to make a music video for a new track of Earl Sweatshirt’s”. He said it needed to be similar to a skate video. For some reason they couldn’t shoot it in America, so my mate said, “Yeah I know a dude”, and then put us in touch.

I know you are a part of the Katoomba Surf Club. What is this club about?

Katoomba Surf Club is a surf club in the mountains. It’s a group of surfers riding the wave of Katoomba. There’s a place called The Beach near the skatepark and the train station and everyone goes down to hang out. I have a tattoo of it. They have an Instagram account called @katoombasurfclub. But I reckon keep up the mystic around it.

What is some advice you would give to young creatives?

I like the idea of approaching every project with the thought that this is the best possible thing you have ever made and obsessing over it a bit.

Shot by Connor Sprague