Real Human Being by Ryan Martin
This music video I collaborated on with the brilliant Anna Samo, is finally out. Real Human Being celebrates its premiere on the music magazine American Songwriter. It was great to sit together and discuss ideas with songwriter Ryan Martin and the team at High Moon Records.
The song tells the story of a lonely person, wandering through the city with an ever more heavy heart. Starting in a rainy dark place the character manages to find a way to brighten up the mood, creating music with his heart, finding new hope.
With its hushed and fragile vocals floating over the fingerpicking of an acoustic guitar, from the instant the song starts to slip through the speakers the listener is transported into another world. Enter celebrated animators Michaela Müller and Anna Samo and their aggressively artistic vision – painting on glass. The process produces an amazing visual but is ungodly intricate and time consuming as it consists of hours in a dark room where every frame is painted by hand, recorded, wiped away, then painted again. Factor in the added difficulty of each artist relegated to their own studio, these two were working together but apart, ultimately volleying animated sketches back and forth.
Ken Churilla on American Songwriter, July 1st 2020
