We recently explored how musicians have creatively responded to loss. Now we continue our release roundup series by focusing on videos making creative use of archive footage.
Le Big Zero: Flying circus
Royal Castles: Great trek
Dub War: Double standard society
Keegan Powell: Starstruck
Haley and Michaels: Love life
Basia Bulat: Snow daze
Beddy Rays: Live montage, life montage
GXHST: Night changes
Francesca Louise: Ethereal tribute
Le Big Zero: Flying circus
Curating archive footage is one of our favourite ways for artists to make an affordable yet effective music video. We selected this video in particular due to the unified way it compiles circus, vaudeville, and recreation scenes to match Le Big Zero‘s eerie “beachy” song.
Royal Castles: Great trek
Meanwhile, Dustin Seabrook compiled vintage European archive footage to accompany Royal Castles‘ single. Drummer Katrin Sawatzky sings in both German and English. The song builds upon a German lullaby about fear, resilience, and hope to honour her Russian-Mennonite ancestors’ Great Trek across Europe to escape religious persecution during World War II.
Dub War: Double standard society
Aran Webster compiled this video from news archives to illustrate Blackkk Man‘s piercing lyrics.
Dub War’s frontman Benji Webbe (who is also Skindred‘s vocalist) explained why he was compelled to write this track in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
“This is a cry from my heart for equal rights and justice… No one chooses the skin they’re in – should the skin you’re in help you to win? It’s a question we all need to think about!”
Keegan Powell: Starstruck
During the pandemic, Keegan Powell was living in Toronto and dreaming of being somewhere he could see the stars. Presumably, he didn’t mean for us to go down a rabbit hole of checking whether Toronto Island ferries were running then. Instead, he visualised a sleepy beach town three hours north. The song Kincardine captures the feeling of the place. It’s accompanied by his grandfather’s Super 8 footage of northern Ontario in the late 1950s.
Haley and Michaels: Love life
Fittingly, we’ve also dug back in the archives to include Haley and Michaels‘ video for Born Yesterday. That’s because it captured special moments in pregnancy and their daughter Keira’s early weeks. As the song implies, that time goes by so fast. Now, Keira is over 18 months old, with a distinct personality.
“Keira, you are our light, our whole hearts, our diaper changing dancer, avocado devourer, professional pointer, “THAT” exclaimer, airplane gazer, sprinting speed crawler, aggressive hair puller, “wild thing” growler, bubble popping squealer, intense soul starer, obsessive nose detector, “mommy milk time” connoisseur, “kitty cat” chaser, no reason required clapper, champion tag chewer, constant smiler, belly laugher, greatest teacher, biggest love of our lives. Our daughter.”
Mom (aka Bop) and Daddy
Basia Bulat: Snow daze
Basia Bulat’s video for Fables also uses family archive footage, but this time featuring her own childhood. That Hi 8 camera footage is contrasted with contemporary scenes of herself and her daughter also enjoying a snow day on Prince Edward Island.
“Fables carry lessons from one generation to the next. But what do we do when part of the fable passed down to us is forgotten or mistaken? When we realize as adults that we may have been carrying on legacies that we didn’t intend or understand?“
Bulat’s new album, The Garden, reimagines songs from five of her studio albums with classical string quartet arrangements by Owen Pallett, Paul Frith, and Robidoux.
Beddy Rays: live montage, life montage
These performance and behind-the-scenes clips were shot during Beddy Rays‘ recent sold-out tour of Australi, capturing the infectious energy and camaraderie of punk tours and music.
GHXST: Night changes
Meanwhile, GHXST’s video for Marry The Night is crowdsourced from friends’ footage. Although the monochrome scenes jump abruptly between cities and even countries, you will strive to make meaning. This impulse is encouraged by the editing style that resembles the action of the beloved red ViewMaster toys of your childhood.
Francesca Louise: Ethereal tribute
Francesca Louise wrote this melancholic memoir in shock after the loss of a close family friend. She also recorded the song at home in Lancashire to capture the same raw feeling. This video deftly blends footage of joy with a subtly unsettling sense that the surrounding white lines might be cut marks. This implies that the subjects could be tragically removed at any moment.
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