The Artist Explains: Sasha Cay - 'Back To'
Montreal singer-songwriter & multi-instrumentalist Sasha Cay talks us through the creative process for ‘Back To’, the last single from her upcoming EP, ‘Arthur’s Party Trick’ due for release November 13.
Where was the video for ‘Back To’ filmed?
The video was filmed in my kitchen, in Montreal. I spent a few weeks drawing a deck of tarot cards that illustrate the song and had my friend Stefani sit across me as I read her fortune with them. If you look closely you can also see a matchbox with my friend Henri’s band on it.
Could you tell us about how you came up with the ideas for the ‘Back To’ visuals?
I’ve always been fascinated with playing cards and their design, and most recently I’ve been drawing out my own tarot figures and had the idea to make the music video for ‘Back To’ a reference to Agnès Varda’s film Cléo de 5 à 7, which begins with the main character getting her fortune read.
This song is the last single off my EP ‘Arthur’s Party Trick’ which comes out later this month and I based the cover art for the EP off a found playing card.
When I think about the songs on this EP, I’m often thinking about chance – the way people glance off each other, weaving in and out of each other’s lives by random or by what sometimes feels like destiny. How that changes, ends, where we are left in the wake of it – and though it’s arbitrary, we always find some way to make them have meaning in the narrative of our lives.
I also think about play and how I enjoy telling stories through characters. For a moment I was thinking of making the EP art with a joker, but then I got thinking about tarot and the characters that illustrate those cards; symbols read countless ways by countless people over time. I thought about the 7 songs on the EP & considered the tarot card of Seven Swords, but then ended up on the 7 of hearts found in a plain player’s deck I got at a thrift shop.
Interview by Karla Harris
