Take a cryptic digital tour of the Big Apple in a new music video for London-based singer Douglas Dare's ominous new single, "New York," off his upcoming sophomore album Aforger (out October 14th on Erased Tapes). The video was directed by Dan W. Jacobs, the English animator who once collaborated with Inventions for their beautiful "Superworlds" music video. For his latest, Jacobs builds an intimate narrative animation that takes an abstract look at the the singer’s life during some of his most vulnerable moments.
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We explore the video’s setting through a fleeting light source that zips around town, briefly illuminating different pockets of the city. Jacobs creates a Daliesque digital universe that’s been dipped in black, white, and different shades of gray. The only thing that isn't monochrome in the video is our protagonist, a fractured waxy 3D model of the singer that stumbles through a desert wasteland on through an abandoned virtual metropolis. The animator writes, “Working in 3D enabled us to stick very close to the original ideas behind the track—the idea of a fragmented/distorted or romanticized memory of a place, and being unable to distinguish between what was real and what is imaginary, or influenced by other imagery.”
Aforger considers two major milestones in Dare’s life: when he came out to his father and when he learned that his longtime partner had been cheating behind his back. The singer writes, “New York is a song that's literally describing that very real feeling of not knowing who or what to believe any more—scary and magical at the same time.”
Jacobs’ animations carefully follow the terrain of the song: the speed and intensity of his visuals move in sync with the rise and fall of the music. Lyrically, Dare says he wanted to be as honest as possible. The album deals so much with dishonesty that he decided to counterbalance the subject matter with overtly honest writing. Dare said he was inspired by Björk’s Vulnicura album and “how everything is almost awkward in its honesty.” Visit Douglas Dare's "New York" below:
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