Bass player and all-round prodigious musical maestro Thundercat has shared an animated new video for Song For The Dead, exactly one year since the release of his mini-album The Beyond/Where The Giants Roam.
The animated clip is soothing and psychedelic, perhaps the perfect visual accompaniment for the beautiful track, laden with incredible bass guitar lines and vocals, both courtesy of Thundercat. The clip was created by Ryan McShane, or Ry No and begins with an image of a wolf, presumably dead. Soon enters an animated version of Thundercat and his bass, who brings the wolf back to life, or perhaps helps it pass on to the next world. The video continues with vividly colourful scenery of the wolf pack, and our surrounding world, star and skies, including what looks like actual footage of the Earth’s surface. The video has a contemplative, almost spiritual feel to it, and is a really enjoyable visual accompaniment to the beautiful track.
On the video’s creation, Ry explained, “One night in August 2013, I drew a fake cover for Captain Murphy’s ‘Between Villains’. I posted it to Twitter and the villain himself retweeted it, and so did Thundercat.
“Thundercat and I started chatting over Twitter after that – fast forward to 2015, I’m working at digital ventures practice Josephmark and motion studio Breeder, and making pictures and music on the weekends.
“Then ‘Where The Giants Roam’ drops, I’m nearing the end of a two week break where I’ve been spending indoors, drawing in my room. When I heard ‘A Song For The Dead’, this part – 1:49 – gave me the idea to animate. I wanted to animate this few seconds of a transformation as the sound spins around in stereo. But I had a few days free, so I decided to block out a full video. Super rough, black and white, with NASA footage backgrounds – I had a bunch on hand that I found whilst researching for Breeder’s The Expanse titles – and then I just sent it to Thundercat.
He loved it. So I was locked into it now, my first big solo animation. Naturally, the way I work, I made it even harder for myself – adding colours and extra seconds. Shout out to Breeder co-worker Alex Gee for suggesting I add colour.”
Thundercat last visited Australia in January to perform at Laneway Festival as well as headline tour dates. Read our live review of Thundercat live in Sydney, and you can check out our exclusive interview with the man himself here.
Image: Youtube