Bat For Lashes Releases Video For New Single 'Lilies'
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Written by Jon Stickler
BRIT nominated Bat for Lashes are proud to unveil the video for ‘Lilies’, the 4th single to be taken from the critically acclaimed album ‘The Haunted Man’. ‘Lilies’ will be released via Parlophone on 15th April 2013.
Commissioned by Natasha and directed by award winning mixed-media director Peter Sluszka (Moones, björk and Regina Spektor), ‘Lilies’ is a fantastical stop-motion video staring Natasha along with 3 giant puppets.
The filming of the video started back in August 2012 at the acclaimed mixed-media production company Hornet Inc. and their stage in Brooklyn. Natasha sat for 9 hours mouthing the lyrics “thank god I’m alive” as part of the stop-motion sequence. The final animation has a wave made of shaving foam as well as streaks of lightning pouring out of her mouth, and specks of glitter shimmering around her face.
Natasha says of the video: “The concept of the ‘Lilies’ video really came to me in quite a subconscious way... Perhaps it was the lyric about children all coming to my door with bottles of dreams, but I wanted the video to contain that kind of childlike surrealism. I wanted the verses to be minimal, in darkness, perhaps illuminated by the beams of a lighthouse. And then I thought the choruses needed to bloom visually, as the music does. The idea of introducing puppets and references to psychedelic English animations and landscape felt very fitting with the themes of the song. I wanted to reference all the dark childhood fantasy films I watched as a child, like Labyrinth and Roald Dahl and Terry Gilliam films”.
The central theme of the song is about epiphanies and trusting the beauty life has to offer, and so as the video progresses, I learn to trust the creatures and explore that intimacy more and more.”
Peter Sluszka said of Natasha: “Working with Natasha was extremely rewarding because in addition to being a great performer, she's an artist with a unique vision, and collaborating with her on Lilies resulted in creative challenges that made the process and the finished video unlike any other I have worked on. Perhaps the most important factor in this production was Natasha's willingness to endure labour intensive pixilation shots, many of them hours long, where she bore the brunt of the tedium and pain. This project couldn't have been achieved without her singular devotion and discipline. Despite the hard work, the performance footage with the massive puppets shows moments of real joy, humour, and improvisation that counterbalance the poise and meticulousness of the animation shots.”
Bat for Lashes will co-headline Field Day in Victoria Park, London with Animal Collective on 25th May 2013. For further details click here.
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