The Artist Explains: IVEEN - 'Orion'
Singer-songwriter IVEEN speaks to us in depth about her enchanting single and music video, ‘Orion’ which aims to offer some light and inspiration in these crazy times.
How did you decide on the video treatment/visual for the ‘Orion’ music video?
Coming up with the story for the video was a challenge at first. Darrick Atwater (music producer, actor, videographer all in one for the video) and myself, really took this whole project on with guns blazing. The song by itself is a story, so I wanted to come up with something that truly complimented the story in the song. My mind was spinning with all of these different images of shipwrecked sailors, sirens, galaxies, dancers and warriors - playing drums in the ocean. Making a story out of it was difficult but in the end I think it turned out more coherent than I had anticipated! Our friend and project manager Leana Jones put us in touch with this really great artist/storyboard designer, Clarke McCaleb. I wrote the basic storyline down and Clarke drew it all out! Seeing it drawn out really helped us figure out what kinds of locations we were going to need, so we (Darrick Atwater, Leana and myself) began scouting locations right away. Leana also suggested this beautiful (yet somewhat unknown) mountain here in GA called Arabia mountain. As soon as we saw it in person, we fell in love with it and knew we had to film there! My favorite scenes are the ones on the mountain where Imani Jackson (the dancer) sees an asteroid fall in the distance and wanders up the mountain until she finds her starlight amulet. The rest of the scenes were filmed at a beach in Pensacola florida on the gulf coast (the water there is so clear and blue!) and the scenes with the dancer and drummers were filmed in a Dance studio here in Atlanta (Atla Entertainment: Space 2).
We hand-made all of the props ourselves and I’m super proud of that. The Drums, Amulets, and costumes started as these intricate and expensive ideas, but we were able to save a huge amount of the budget by being creative and doing the work to make them ourselves. Darrick Atwater built the drums out of relatively inexpensive material. We both built the glowing Star Amulets out of little LED lights and jewelry making kits. The company that makes my favorite black electric/acoustic harp (Harpsicle harps) even sent me a smaller white harp to play in the scenes on the beach! That added such a beautiful contrast to the whole video so I’m super grateful for them.
After the production was finally done, I just sat there and tried to imagine the amount of work it would take to make an entire movie. It makes you look at films and music videos differently once you know the amount of work that goes into making them! I truly have a newfound appreciation for filmmaking now.
How does the video connect with the song?
The song "Orion" is essentially about how feeling hopeless can feel like being "lost at sea". Feeling hopeless is a scary place to be for anyone. The times in my life that I’ve felt this way, I’ve had to learn how to let go of the need of being in control. I found that the more I tried to control situations that were out of my control, everything often became worse. So “Let the waves take over, it’s out of my hands” is my way of saying to let it go, and accept that certain things can’t be changed, and that’s ok! We are all in need of a shimmer of hope in our times of hopelessness. We are all like sailors that drift upon the ocean waves. Some of us are lost and long to find peace. If we learn how to accept the things we cannot change, we will learn how to surrender to the waves of serenity. If we let the stars light the path - if we let go and let the waves carry us onward - We will surely find our way home.
The drummer (Darrick Atwater) in the first scene was shipwrecked on the beach. He was searching for something to help him find his way home and a shooting star came from the heavens. When he captures it, he finds that it’s actually a vial that holds captured starlight. When he puts it around his neck, it transports him back to his fellow warrior drummers. The stars heard his plea, and helped guide him home. Same thing with the little dancer (Imani Jackson)! Though she was on another planet, she felt the same thing the drummer was feeling. She was lost, alone, and was looking for the light to guide her home.
Do you have any unforeseen behind the scenes/making-of stories you can share?
We ran into a few roadblocks along the way as I’m sure most productions do. One of the main things was that we kept running out of budget to finish everything. We were still able to pull it off in the end and that’s what matters. If you work hard enough and keep pushing through obstacles, impossible things get done! A terrifying moment was when we were filming the scenes where I’m singing while immersed in the waves. Darrick Atwater was filming these particular scenes and decided to capture the waves a little closer than expensive cameras like. Needless to say in the middle of a take, a big wave smashed into me and nearly took the Camera and Darrick with it! Luckily the camera was fine, but right after that happened... We decided we were done filming for the day.
We also had a hard time finding drummers that looked like muscular warriors, so instead of trying to find drummers, we started looking for body builders that we could teach how to drum. The guys that agreed to play the parts did so amazing (Raaziq Basir, Kyle Walling, Kevin Van, and Dylan Malec! Some of them learned how to actually drum on-time in just a few days! Darrick Atwater is already a drummer so luckily he didn’t have much work to do except for teaching everyone else how to drum.
Could you tell us more about the ideas/themes used?
I’ve always been a huge fan of everything Fantasy and Sci-fi related. Growing up in my family there was a lot of Star Wars and Star Trek on a weekly basis because my dad and grandpa are both really into those kinds of things. They introduced me and my siblings to those things at an early age, thankfully! The first books I ever read were the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings. I’ve always had a huge imagination when it comes to creating stories and visuals because of this.
When creating a lot of the things associated with my most recent projects, there’s been a lot of nostalgia for me when I include elements of my early childhood influences. Sci-fi/fantasy/cinematic elements can be found both visually and audibly in “Orion”, and I think a lot of that has to do with my upbringing. Another huge influence in the story (both the song and video) is my love for greek mythology. Homer’s “Odyssey” is another one of my all time favourite epic poems. Orion, in greek mythology, was believed to be the son of Poseidon (god of the sea). He was known for being a mighty warrior/hunter, but was believed to be able to walk on waves because he was the son of Poseidon. When I wrote the song, I didn’t even have that information in mind and realised later that “let the waves take over” and “put us on the path of Orion” were one in the same thing for the Greek mythological character.
What do you hope people take away from watching the video?
My hope is that it helps people to feel a little bit of light in these crazy times we’re in right now. There’s so much sadness, depression, anxiety, anger and hopelessness in our world right now. The “Sirens singing in the distance” have always been depression and anxiety for me. I can truly say that I’ve been there and none of those feelings are a good place to be stuck in. The whole world is suffering right now in a way I’ve never seen. We’re all in it together though, and that’s beautiful. That’s part of what I wanted to say with the video too. We all might be worlds apart, but we can all look to the heavens at the same time. Sometimes realising how small we are in the universe, is what helps us to be a bigger help to those around us. If “Orion” can add even just a little bit of light and inspiration to the world right now, that’s more than I could ever ask for!
Interview by Karla Harris