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Behind the song & video “Letting Go”
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Letting Go

In the “Behind The Song”-series we talk about the writing process, the technical side, the ideas behind the lyrics, and much more… Today we tackle the track “Letting Go” and the accompanying music video made by Emily Weeks. The track is taken from the 2013 Psy’Aviah EP “Future Past“.

Behind “Letting Go”, the music and the video…

With this track, we wanted to make a kind of electronic ballad, influenced by both triphop and EBM. From our perspective we think the EBM influences can mostly be found in the typical bassline, and a more triphop approach is used with the drums and crackles (as percussion elements). The lyrics themselve deal with “moving on”, literally “breaking up with the past” as the chorus part describes. To dive deeper yourself, read the lyrics below…!

A story that begged for visualisation…

From the moment I started working on the lyrics & music, I quickly knew I had to reinvite animator & director Emily Weeks to make an animated music video, with a story based on our lyrics. This time though we asked her to limit the decors and color usage, to make the video a bit grimmer in contrast to the “On My Own” music video she procuded for us. ”I really liked Psy’Aviah’s idea to restrict the color palette of the video to black, white, and a little bit of red, which corresponds to the aesthetics that the band has established for themselves, and also works excellently in the context of this story.” - says Emily Weeks, and she adds:

Powell & Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus”

“The story grew really out of films and artists that I enjoy, as well as my own emotions and memories. Starting from Yves’s initial concepts for the film, I then looked at a lot of reference and the story was shaped from there. I find references to be formative in the creation of my work, as these are works that are important in film history and are very effective at what they do. Therefore, a lot can by learned from them. Some of the inspirations included German Expressionist films, Egon Schiele, and classic films from the 50s and 60s about nuns, such as Powell and Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus” and Zinneman’s “The Nun’s Story”. I found Catholicism to hold a wealth of inspirational material. It is so full of symbolism and metaphor, which I exploited. I am drawn to non-linear storytelling and surrealism, as I think this way of approching filmmaking has the potential to reveal more than linear narrative or extreme (self)consciousness.”

The black and white minimalist look…

Dogville (Lars von Trier)

The music video has a distinct minimalist look in decors and color use. I hinted Emily Weeks at some movies where I saw minimalism could focus attention more on the story and on certain parts of the animation/”dialogue”… For me this was in particular the film “Dogville” by Lars von Trier - where the scene is in fact nothing more than a black & white canvas where the actors perform their part. No props, no buildings, nothing… It’s extreme, but it puts a lot of focus on the story.

Emily Weeks explains: “The look was driven by Psy’Aviah’s suggestions and by their music, especially the content of this particular song about living with painful memories and a traumatic past. I think the visual elements of the video work well with the sounds and themes of the music. I love old black and white cinema, and the restricted palette let me very much be inspired by films from German Expressionism like “Metropolis”, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, and “Vampyr”, for example.

Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

The monochromatic palette brings shot composition and sculpturalism of forms to the forefront, which I enjoy playing with. As in German Expressionist greats, I wanted any decors or backgrounds to reflect the psychological state of the characters. The statues play an important thematic role in this film.”

“We wanted to make the look thus stark in order to focus more intently on the story and the naked emotions of it. In reducing the backgrounds, I was able to focus more on the animation, which I think made it stronger and more expressive. The minimalism can also tie into themes of death and isolation, or an emptiness of the soul.”, adds Emily Weeks.

Valerie’s hair

Valerie’s hair (concept sketch), Emily Weeks

One example of the german expressionist influence in “Letting Go” that I want to highlight is something Emily Weeks already hinted at: “I wanted any decors or backgrounds to reflect the psychological state of the characters“. The most noteable appearance of that is I think Valerie’s hair, which mirrors her progression and devastation as a character in the story, and it reflects the deterioration and eventual dormancy or death of her psyche.

“I really liked Psy’Aviah’s idea to restrict the color palette of the video to black, white, and a little bit of red, which corresponds to the aesthetics that the band has established for themselves, and also works excellently in the context of this story. Valerie’s hair is one of the few red items in the scheme of the film. Red in the film always signifies some kind of emotion or vitality-I’ll let the viewers work that out for themselves. I am drawn to the idea of cutting one’s hair as an act of mourning or an expression of deep loss. The metaphor of dying in the eyes of the world when becoming a nun is played out in the cutting of her hair and the subsequent loss of all color in the palette of the film.“, Emily Weeks adds.

Software used in “Letting Go”…

“All of the animation and drawings in the video are digitally hand-drawn in Photoshop.
The added textures (watercolor paintings and splotches, paper, etcetera) I scanned in and composited with the digital lines in order to try to achieve the look of the traditional media that I used during character design.”

“Overall I’m still experimenting and using many different techniques in my animation practice. I prefer hand-drawn techniques and traditional media as much as possible. This particular video used mostly digital technology, and I mainly use Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, etc. My workflow takes me through many programs in conjunction in order to acheive the final film. However, I do not view the software as important to the work itself. Creativity, vision, and the ability to express something specific are most important.”

“The intersection of digital and analog techonologies is always an interesting question for me. I try to use digital as seldom as possible, but digital is an important part of my process. I think, no matter whether the media I use is mostly digital or traditional, I’m always looking for a handmade quality; there is such a thing as digital handmade.”

Listen to the track & watch the music video


Lyrics


she wants the cage she lives in to vanish
clean out her closet and break through the walls
that stop her from dreaming, that make it impossible to live her life
she wants to clean the mess inside her head
clear old dusty boxes with memories
of stories she wanted forgotten, but never really could

facts, eveidence, figures, clues and hints
tangible evidence of a crime at hand
bruises, injuries, black eyes and tears
tangible evidence of a painful past

break up with the past, leave it all behind
it’s easier said then done
break up with the past, leave it all behind
i know, it’s easier said then done

if only the days would move a little faste
sleep would last just a little bit longer
and being awake and conscious, wouldn’t have to be so endless
come let waves erase all the past
let them wash it away and bury
everything that once was, ’cause some things are meant to be forgotten

facts, eveidence, figures, clues and hints
tangible evidence of a crime at hand
bruises, injuries, black eyes and tears
tangible evidence of a painful past

break up with the past, leave it all behind
it’s easier said then done
break up with the past, leave it all behind
i know, it’s easier said then done

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Behind the song “Our Common Future ft. Kyoko Baertsoen”
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Kyoko Baerstoen

In the “Behind The Song”-series we talk about the writing process, the technical side, the ideas behind the lyrics, and much more… Today we tackle the track “Our Common Future” which features vocalist Kyoko Baertsoen (known from her work with Hooverphonic, Lunascape and more recently Buscemi). The track is taken from the 2013 Psy’Aviah EP “Future Past“.

Behind “Our Common Future”


The track’s lyrics are dual, in the way that they deal with the world on a global scale, and the world in your every day life. Mutual respect for each other is the core theme, in both environmental issues as communication between humans. If we do not succeed in working together, listening to each other, living with each other, then our common future will not result in “survival for us all”, but in “destruction for us all”. It’s a quite simple message, and I don’t think it needs any further explenation, but do read the lyrics below…!

The vocal part…

For as long as I’ve known the band Lunascape (I discovered them during a late-night talksshow “De Laatste Show”) I wanted to work with Kyoko Baertsoen one day. Why? Simply because her voice is very distinct, warm and emotional. A perfect fit for the track. And because I was moving with to a more triphop / synthpop way for the “Future Past” EP I thought it was the perfect time to contact her. I wrote some demos and we sent ideas back and forth through the internet, ultimately resulting in the track “Our Common Future”. Kyoko can do harmonies like no other, she did some dubbings on the verses, and especially on the chorus parts that made those sections stand out even more. (PS: Fun fact: Kyoko recorded the vocal parts in her pyjamas… :-)!)

For the techies…


The bassline is procuded out of a KORG MS-20 synth, dubbed with a very clean subbass from NI Massive. Our main guitarist Ben Van de Cruys wrote the guitar parts for the track, the only thing I changed was adding a filter and a huge delay on them using NI FM8 as an effect processor, to get a mix between a normal delay and a reverse delay. This to get a more dubby flow on the whole track, and especially on the verse parts. The biggest pads come straight from ReFX Nexus and NI Massive.

When constructing the chorus I felt it was a bit empty. I was experimenting with adding guitars, but that made it a bit too full and cluttered. The solution came when I repeated a vocal part, listen below to hear the A/B difference…

Another subtle addition were the fills, or walkup passages, (read up about the term here if you’re not familiar with it). I used different sounds to construct a fill that would fit with the already dubby track, and endup up layering two ragga snares with a huge delay. Under those I added short hihats, with a phaser, delay and subtle variation in both amplitude and pitch. If I would have used snares in stead of those short hats it would have been too overwhelming. But, before ending up with this, I experimented with leaving out an eigth of the music (leaving only her vocals) as a transition into the next section, even a reverse crash.. But they all felt a bit dull and more importantly they didn’t fit with the feel of the dubby track. The fill now is subtle, but leaving it out would be signigicant. Anyway, listen to the example below:

The section between the verses and the chorus is one where I first only had a synth playing 2 notes, again with massive delays on there.. It felt a bit empty, and more importantly when the chorus kicked in it would’ve been too overwhelming. The next step I took was adding a pad to support the synth part. In the original version I also added Ben’s guitars, making them reappear in this section made the track feel like a whole more, and added to the dubby feel… Below you can kind of hear the step-by-step process:

Listen to the track


Via Spotify:

Via Soundcloud:

Lyrics


We’ve got a common future, we’ve got a common goal
Survival of the fittest, or survival for us all?
We have a common problem, we have global trouble
Sustainable future, or destruction for us all?

We are all on the same boat here,
We are all on the same…
We are all on the same boat here,
We are all on the same world here…

We’ve got a common future, we’ve got a common goal
Survival of the fittest, or survival for us all?
Our views trouble our sight, blind for each other’s eyes
Our views trouble our sight, blind for each other…

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