The Artist Explains: Diamond Shake - 'Birdsong'
Diamond Shake (Matthew Hitchens) speaks to us about the visuals for ,‘Birdsong’, which is part of his animated music video project for his personal album, ‘From Method To Madness, documenting his own experiences with mental health issues over the years.
How did you come up with the ideas to animate your music videos?
When I was looking for a video director, I wanted someone who could make them without needing much input from me. The only restriction was that I didn’t want to be in them. The idea was that by giving them the freedom to make whatever vision they had, it would get the best work out of that person. I posted flyers around all the LA film schools, as well as on Craigslist, and was fortunate enough to get a reply from an incredible animator called Dominique Bloink. Her pitches were by far and away the best I received, and I thought her style fit perfectly with the music. After the first two, I asked her if she would make a video for every song on the album, and we are now four down. Finding Dom was the biggest break I could have hoped for. She’s been a god send, both in the quality of work she does, and the way she works. I can’t believe how lucky I have been to find her.
How do the videos connect with the songs?
With every video, I send Dom the track, the lyrics, and what the song is about, and then she will come up with the storyline, the style, and the imagery based on those things to connect it all together.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
I’ve never actually met or spoken with Dom, the director, as she lives in France, so I don’t really have any stories like that. She seems real cool over email though!
Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?
’Birdsong’ is all about my relationships with women, how my insecurities have caused many good ones to end, and how never dealing with the root of the issues has caused it all to repeat itself again and again. For the imagery and style, that’s all up to Dom. She’s amazing at finding the right mood with colours and storyline for each video, without making any of them look like any of the others.
‘Shake’ is about fear, anger and being in denial of the hole I had dug myself into. I would tell people I was alright, but I couldn’t change the negative behaviour that was affecting me, and so I found myself getting even worse, and again, repeating it over it over. The video is more focussed on anger, and how the triggers that can set you off are never the real issue. If you don’t deal with what is really causing the anger underneath it all, it will keep growing and eventually overwhelm you and lead to real rage. The original idea was black and white, but we had the thought of using red highlights to signify the triggers for the character’s anger, and then having the red take over the whole screen to represent that anger taking complete control and engulfing him. Time and clocks are used throughout to suggest it’s only a matter of time before the rage takes over, that it’s inevitable.
Is there a message the videos are trying to convey?
The videos are more visual interpretations of the song, rather than trying to push any sort of message. All the songs on the album are about me, and my mental health issues over the years, so it’s more about just explaining what I was going through. However, even though ‘Shake’ is about my issues with anger, fear, despair, denial, and how ignoring the root of the issue only makes things worse, it seems to fit what’s going on globally right now. Unintentionally a song and video about these Corona days.
Interview by Karla Harris