Premiere: “Second Nature” by Thin Lear
Dejected puppets and daydreams in this music video made with Moscow-based artist FaceHeads
New Queens-based band Thin Lear, headed by Matt Longo, requested the talents of Renaissance man FaceHeads (aka Moscow-based artist Dmitry Kopytin) to create visuals for their song “Second Nature.” The carefully produced light classic rock tune is assembled from “half-thoughts and the repetition of words that keep changing their meaning, to replicate the way memories are constantly taking on different meaning,” Longo tells CH. Leaving a sweet taste in the mouth, the stream-of-conscious lyrics reflect our constantly racing minds (no thanks to 20+ browser tabs open at all times), while a sad-looking puppet gets mugged and dragged around onscreen.
“I reached out to Dmitry after seeing a few FaceHeads videos online and feeling drawn to his vision—it was really playful, nostalgic, and weird. Dmitry and I then had a fantastic Skype conversation where we talked about our love of Jim Henson’s ‘Dark Crystal.’ We both loathe music videos where a band struggles to look cool. I wanted the video to be enjoyable for a viewer even without the music, which is nearly impossible with a bunch of musicians loitering in shots. So we arrived at the idea of puppets,” says Longo on the video, which was coordinated through emails and Skype. “As the EP is largely about anxiety, and the excessive amount of time I spend in my own head as I navigate the NYC transportation system, we wanted our main character to drift through life, taking pleasure in thoughts that are exceedingly real only to him. Additionally, we kind of wanted to express the necessity of daydreams for when life is shitting on you.” Kopytin wrote the script and his wife Marina Sponko handmade the puppets. While the backdrop could be mistaken for New York, it was, in fact, filmed in Moscow.
Stream (and download, for name-your-price) the self-released, eponymous Thin Lear EP in full on Bandcamp.
Screenshots taken from the music video
