This video comes at an almost eerily appropriate time for me, despite the fact that it is, atypically, a brand new video of a six year old release. I wrote “the Falcon,” when I lived in Montreal, almost ten years ago, and was reflecting on the leaving of relationships. Now I still certainly see it as that, but also as the leaving of ‘regular life,’ work etc., in the name of artistic pursuits. Perhaps even the leaving of ‘regular reasoning.’ This, as the title track to my second album will tell you, is not my only song about leaving.
Meeting and working with Ana on this song was an incredibly exciting exercise. One of the things I love most about songwriting is that, though there is most often a specific lens I am writing through, the particular subject matter is both veiled and enhanced by the potent magic of symbolism. By writing songs instead of just yapping about how I feel about this or that, (which, apologetically, I am doing now), artistically, I can leave it open for people to find their own meaning and truth in the song. (Incidentally, my master’s thesis is about symbolic language being more ethical than regular language, because of that).
Filming a video meant, or so I worried, narrowing down the interpretations. Putting a visual framework to a song would almost necessarily reduce it to one meaning. What was so magical to me working with Ana, sitting at our regular bar in Friedrichshain, Berlin, last spring, is that we had a full-on literary analysis session about the song, exploring its possible meanings. We moved from relationships to art, to madness, reality, just like in a classroom studying a poem. Then we brainstormed imagery to try to best contain, but not restrain, the various interpretations.
There are certain conversations and certain creative partnerships that have a spark to them, and this was definitely one of them. It was Ana’s splendid eye, subtle and intelligent ideas and exceptional editing (which is in itself an interpretive art, I have learned, and one she is gifted at), that achieved all I had hoped for and more. Who is the falconer? Who is the falcon? What is the escape from, who is it from, and where is it to? Is it defiant, futile, or both? These are not just issues in the song, but issues that pertain more than a little to my life these days as I have been living in a kind of exhausting escape from the ‘regular’ life, plagued with cynicism and doubt but for some stupid reason, insistent hope, whatever that means, and for whatever its worth. The doubling of bird and woman is pretty appropriate too, as the Little Birdie versus Orit Shimoni life and identity, are no longer two separate things, but one, for better or for worse. Maybe they always have been; I am still working on both.
In any case, here’s hoping you find some beauty, or better yet, meaning in the song and video. Mark Goodwin’s exceptional production job on the song, (and album, Cinematic Way), Andre Kirchhoff’s stunning backing vocals, (I still miss them all the time!), the fabulous musicianship of Stuart Patterson, RD Harris, Eric LeMoyne, bring back fabulous and exciting memories of the recording of my debut album and grace the song with just the right amount of melodrama, loftiness, gravitas… all of my favourite things. J
Another thank you to Chris Lastelle in Berlin who assisted greatly with the video!
I am truly blessed to be able to create something out of emotion and thought, and have it be met with the delicate hand of passionate friends like these.
Enjoy. We are already planning the next one!
Meeting and working with Ana on this song was an incredibly exciting exercise. One of the things I love most about songwriting is that, though there is most often a specific lens I am writing through, the particular subject matter is both veiled and enhanced by the potent magic of symbolism. By writing songs instead of just yapping about how I feel about this or that, (which, apologetically, I am doing now), artistically, I can leave it open for people to find their own meaning and truth in the song. (Incidentally, my master’s thesis is about symbolic language being more ethical than regular language, because of that).
Filming a video meant, or so I worried, narrowing down the interpretations. Putting a visual framework to a song would almost necessarily reduce it to one meaning. What was so magical to me working with Ana, sitting at our regular bar in Friedrichshain, Berlin, last spring, is that we had a full-on literary analysis session about the song, exploring its possible meanings. We moved from relationships to art, to madness, reality, just like in a classroom studying a poem. Then we brainstormed imagery to try to best contain, but not restrain, the various interpretations.
There are certain conversations and certain creative partnerships that have a spark to them, and this was definitely one of them. It was Ana’s splendid eye, subtle and intelligent ideas and exceptional editing (which is in itself an interpretive art, I have learned, and one she is gifted at), that achieved all I had hoped for and more. Who is the falconer? Who is the falcon? What is the escape from, who is it from, and where is it to? Is it defiant, futile, or both? These are not just issues in the song, but issues that pertain more than a little to my life these days as I have been living in a kind of exhausting escape from the ‘regular’ life, plagued with cynicism and doubt but for some stupid reason, insistent hope, whatever that means, and for whatever its worth. The doubling of bird and woman is pretty appropriate too, as the Little Birdie versus Orit Shimoni life and identity, are no longer two separate things, but one, for better or for worse. Maybe they always have been; I am still working on both.
In any case, here’s hoping you find some beauty, or better yet, meaning in the song and video. Mark Goodwin’s exceptional production job on the song, (and album, Cinematic Way), Andre Kirchhoff’s stunning backing vocals, (I still miss them all the time!), the fabulous musicianship of Stuart Patterson, RD Harris, Eric LeMoyne, bring back fabulous and exciting memories of the recording of my debut album and grace the song with just the right amount of melodrama, loftiness, gravitas… all of my favourite things. J
Another thank you to Chris Lastelle in Berlin who assisted greatly with the video!
I am truly blessed to be able to create something out of emotion and thought, and have it be met with the delicate hand of passionate friends like these.
Enjoy. We are already planning the next one!
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