For many directors, music videos are but a lucrative stop-gap between film projects – but for the French auteur Michel Gondry it is where he began (and a medium to which he returns again and again), the creative freedom they offer providing an outlet for his unfettered imagination, enabling him to experiment and fine tune a remarkable talent.

For Gondry’s latest foray into music video he teamed up again with past collaborators The Chemical Brothers, and here discusses his interpretation of the duo’s “juddering robotic funk” of new single “Go,” offering an unprecedented insight into his creative process.

Marking the British electronic act’s return from a prolonged hiatus, “Go” is taken from new LP Born in the Echoes and features vocals from A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, just one of a plethora of album collaborators that includes Beck, St. Vincent and Ali Love.

Such was Gondry’s affinity for the short-form medium that the sought-after director eschewed features for nearly 10 years (along the way creating a string of groundbreaking music videos for, among others, Björk, Foo Fighters and The Rolling Stones) before embarking on his feature-length directorial debut, Human Nature (2001), written by Charlie Kaufman. Three years later he teamed up with Kaufman again, directing and co-writing the Academy Award-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (sharing the Best Original Screenplay spoils with Kaufman). Subsequent acclaimed Gondry films include superhero blockbuster The Green Hornet, The Science of Sleep, and 2013’s Moon Indigo.