Edition #5
The Emotions of Iceland Lived in Tangier
Dear friends and loved ones,
As you may know, I have released the music video for the song Lavender Sky on June 25… I wanted to take the time to thank you for your response to the music video, and it has all been very meaningful to me. You’ve been numerous to ask me questions, too, and I wanted to take the time to answer a few ones through this journal…
The supporting video for this song is epic. This is the second song in a row where the visuals are icy cold but so right. Is there an additional meaning behind the locations? How do you select the actors for your videos? – Kevin Reilly, Northamptonshire, UK
Why have you chosen Iceland for the music video of Lavender Sky? Does the song have a link to this place? – Aurélie Blanchouin, France
Is it your father that we see in the music video of Lavender Sky at 3:47? – Benoit Tremblay, Lévis, QC, Canada
What was the meaning of “pulling the trigger”? – Maja, Germany
It is ironic that the song has been written between the desert and the ocean in Tangier. I believe that the environment has an impact, but the emotions transcend this environment...
Iceland is a landscape of great paradoxes, just like the complexity of personal emotions. It is wide and unreachable in so many ways. We are all walking on different paths, but we all live the same journey inside. There are many questions, but not many answers… It evolves all the time…
It is ironic that the song has been written between the desert and the ocean in Tangier. I believe that the environment has an impact, but the emotions transcend this environment… What I felt when writing the song had more links to what we see in the video than the environment I found myself in.
The spark for the lyrics “pulling the trigger” came when I saw an old man kneeling in the narrow little streets close to my apartment in Tangier, Morocco, around 5 am. The call to prayer started, and that image stayed. I wondered if he needed an external “trigger” to have an intimate moment with his god. And it led to the idea of the personal and intimate triggers we all have, what makes us globally human, and intrinsically who we are, all the way to those triggers that we keep on denying, those we’re using to justify ourselves or our actions. For me, it’s like the split second before and after an action, so close in time or motion that it feels like the same heartbeat, but it ain’t totally. It’s impermanent and immutable somehow.
It’s still a process for me to look at it all with a peaceful heart.
Many asked if my father was the one in the super 8 camera images, but those are from a friend’s family archives. I don’t really have any pictures or videos with my father. I come from a very financially humble background, so there wasn’t much access to technology, nor was it a thing for my parents. It was books and music at home. And to be honest, even if I would have had access to personal archives, I don’t think I would have been comfortable using any of it… Maybe because it would have felt like deconsecrating my late father’s memory by using his image in a short movie, and maybe because I have always been really self-conscious and most of the time truly reluctant regarding how much of my personal life I am comfortable to expose under bright lights… It’s still a process for me to look at it all with a peaceful heart.
I think you can discern the evolution through the 11 official videos I have had the privilege to either work on as a producer.
As for choosing the actors, it’s always instinctive for me… It’s what may not be seen or what may be overlooked by other people. It’s the unique way that emotions flow in their eyes. It’s the story exposed through facial expressions, the nature of life revealed through the state of their hands… I have never been interested in the plasticity and pseudo perfection displayed in nowadays’ popular form of entertainment. So the selection is as natural as the characters themselves…
I think you can discern the evolution through the 11 official videos I have had the privilege to either work on as a producer starting with my previous project Your Favorite Enemies (6 videos) up to those associated to my album “Windows in the Sky” (5 videos). I have always wanted emotions to be at the center of the story…
Much love always,
AHF