007: “Love u”
There’s no such thing as wasted time.
Sometimes I like to waste time. Well, more specifically, I don’t believe it’s possible to waste time. It’s possible to wish you’d spent your time on something else, but I don’t think that time can be wasted.
Long live inanity! Every moment we’re alive is an opportunity to learn and to play.
The other day I posted a little poll where the question and all the answers were the same thing: Love u. Here’s the poll, and here are the results.
Because I posted this on my private account, I personally know everyone who responded to the poll, and I noticed some patterns between personality types and the option they chose!
Love u 1: Highly community-minded, somewhat anxious, strong moral compass, cares deeply about doing what’s right, often analyzes their decision-making to ensure it aligns with their ethics.
Love u 2: Playful personalities and a builder of close relationships centered around humor and mutual vulnerability/openness.
Love u 3: Friendly, very familiar with grief, quick to help others, lovers of beautiful aesthetics.
Love u 4: Weird lil freaks with big hearts and zany, heart-forward energy.
No time is wasted! I made my stupid little poll and I got the opportunity to look at who voted, start building connections between various friends in my mind, and reflect on the great curiosity, creativity, and kindness that surrounds me in the form of my friends!
Making my new music video
Ok, now to completely switch topics, I released a music video, and I wanna talk about it!
I met director and co-writer Dave Sondrini last summer, when he made a mini-documentary about me and my band. We got along great, and I just loved his energy, his creative drive, and his narrative perspective.
I never intended to make a video for Everything is Not Lost. In fact, I intended not to make a video, because while I love many of my music videos, they’re
a) expensive to make
b) not my area of expertise and therefore difficult to DIY
c) have even less of a financial return than all the other aspects of making music (it’s a tough industry out there).
But once I released the song, I kept listening to it and seeing things. I saw a dressing room, with lights around the mirror. I saw a theater stage and a red velvet curtain. I saw three muses. I texted Dave:
As you can see, I really did not want to make a video. I haven’t felt able to capture the things I imagine, largely due to lack of skill. As Ira Glass once said: “...your taste is why your work disappoints you.” I hate coming up against something I can’t DIY & willpower my way through. Enter Dave.
He knows everything I don’t. He explained that I’d shot one of my DIY videos in the frame rate they use for the news! Devastating! But enlightening. From the start, Dave was the perfect creative partner, running with my idea, making it his own, and assembling a tiny but perfect crew.
Dave and I met several times to talk over concepts and plans. I made many, many Pinterest boards for looks and moods.
The night before, I played a show in Burlington, VT, and we had a 3-hour drive home, arriving around 2am. Our call for the shoot day was 8. We made it, but I definitely looked a bit worse for wear.
We were lucky enough to use the Shea Theater Arts Center as our location *for free* because non-profits and other artists are truly the most generous people in the music industry. It took about an hour to set up the dressing room scene. We dressed the set, choosing exactly what we wanted in frame, set lights, and the muses and I all got dressed and made up.
Several hours later we took lunch in shifts while we worked on other shots (thanks for picking up lunch, Jacob! My perfect spouse!). We captured a ton of footage – there's a lot of stuff that won’t see the light of day! Then Lucas, our flutist, arrived, and we captured their scenes. Lucas is literally the best dancer I’ve ever known, and I was truly terrified to dance with them, but we made it work. I don’t know why I didn’t think about the fact that this entire video concept would involve me dancing with professional dancers???? I was like, who came up with this idea?!?!?!
Then we moved into the theater space to shoot the on-stage scenes. There’s lots of down time during a shoot while things are moved, set up, and movements are rehearsed. It can be easy to lose morale or just run out of steam, but the team was so upbeat and positive, it was the sweetest thing.
After a trulyyyyy long day, we went outside to shoot the exterior scene where the muses get my “help!” text, and then we wrapped!
The summary above is truly just a small glimpse into the amount of hard work that went into the day. Dave and I (but mostly Dave) spent months planning this shoot, scouting locations, assembling the cast and crew, finding a date that worked for everyone, making lists of props, packing props and gear, loading everything in and out, managing hair, makeup, and other aesthetic details, oh, and actually shooting and acting in the video.
The result is one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of. It deepens the story of the song exactly as I imagined it would.
I don’t know how to express how truly grateful I am for all the time and energy that went into the video. More specifically, I don’t know what to make of the fact that people give my art the time of day at all. I’m still shocked and humbled when people come to my shows. When they share and listen to my music, or when they buy a t-shirt. It’s still surreal that these songs that came out of my head, these worlds I’ve built with my imagination, and my love for storytelling have created a community that consists of more than just myself. I never, ever take it for granted.
If you haven’t seen it already, you can watch my new music video on YouTube or Instagram!
Long live collaboration!!!!!!!!!
Xoxo
K