07 Apr 2016

“Chase the Clouds” Music Video

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/149197991]

This is a total friendship-bragging post. When I was in college, I felt like everyone around me was always hustlin’ – always doing cool shit and promoting their work. Living in Seattle and being a part of this scene made things feel more possible than impossible. If you followed Yow Yow! when I was in college ehh 2009-2012, then you saw these posts come up regularly about my friends and I was HOBviously the most proud. Not being in Seattle, I don’t get to hear about these things as often as I used to, but I keep my ear close when I can.

This week two friends of mine from school directed, produced, and edited a music video for Erik Blood’s “Chase the Clouds” and it is both stunning and mesmerizing. The piece came out on Monday, but I only JUST got around to watching it last night when I was staying late at work. I had just finished up and was winding down, thinking about Yow Yow! stuff like I normally do in the evenings when I decided to put it on. From the very beginning, I was hooked – eyes completely glued to my monitor as I sat in my desk chair, legs criss-crossed applesauce, with terrible posture and leaning in wondering what was going to happen next. Honestly, the music video is kind of a mystery to me and evoked feelings that even made me uncomfortable at times.

City Arts wrote up a blurb about the music video and to be honest, they did a better job than I ever could:

Into the song’s moody, uplifting ambiance Edlund projects the story of a young man attending a 1960s “conversion camp.” (These sorts of places apparently still exist though they go by other names now.) Edlund evokes a powerful sense of period and place through subtle flourishes in costuming and direction and his characters convey surprising depth, as if they exist beyond the bounds of the video. Edlund’s imagery and Blood’s music suffuse the video with a hazy nostalgia—for first love, summer romance, careless youth—which is darkened and twisted by the circumstances of the narrative.

6.5 minutes may seem long for a music video, but it’s worth every second. I love how we got a really succinct story out of it all and some closure at the same time. Peter and Megan (one of my most favorite friends ever!) did an incredible job and I’m so proud of them and excited to share their piece of work on Yow Yow!

[Source]