The Band Explains: The Fours - 'The Best Inventions' (Video)
The Fours speak to us about the ideas behind their animated video and single, 'The Best Inventions'.
'The Best Inventions' is the first single taken from The Fours' debut album, 'Weekly Elbows'. The album was recorded by Darren Latanick and Michael Overall in Columbus, Ohio and Brooklyn, New York and contains 14 catchy, lo-fi, pop-songs.
The Fours Explains:
"The concept of the song is the realization that you are living a life that you might not want and the struggle to stay creatively inspired, and optimistic about the future. The first verse describes practical challenges, the second verse describes cynicism, both internal and external. The chorus serves as a form of self-reassurance, both in the face of practical challenges (an exhausting professional life) as well in the face of more existential challenges (the fear that other people are merely out for themselves, and the struggle to overcome self-criticism). I think the song has, ultimately, an optimistic message: in the face of our challenges, no matter what they may be, all we can do is invent the best intentions.
The video is a stop-motion animation. Every frame was hand drawn (which was a very tedious process!) and photographed. In the video, the character daydreams. The dream, in this case, is both aspirational as well as abstract and non-linear/subconscious. Therefore, there are elements of both kinds of dreams in the video – the character’s desire/anxiety about being an artist is filtered through the abstract words and imagery that we might find in an actual dream. In the end of the video we find the character creating the video of his daydream and his anxiety about his artwork becomes the artwork itself (the dream becomes reality – or vice versa)."
Feature by Karla Harris
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