For his song “Love is All Around,” Moncton-raised but Montreal-based singer/songwriter Michael Feuerstack recently released a new music video illustrated by Sackville, New Brunswick artists Jon Claytor. The video and the song flow together in perfect harmony and, while simple, immerse the listener in the underlying emotions of the track.
The song is off of Feuerstack’s upcoming album Natural Weather and was written as a letter of love and encouragement.
The video is made up of a series of continuous-line illustrations of Feuerstack himself, singing. They are simple—black lines on a white surface—and flow smoothly together along to the music, moving in and out of focus as the lines become more defined or more squiggled.
At certain points the images aren’t of a man at all, but just of squiggly lines dancing around the screen. At others, lines and circles surround him in an almost aura-like manner. It depicts the energy and life in something seemingly slow moving and calm.
“I was drawn immediately to the gentle yet powerful melody of “love is all around,” and I tried to capture the lightly moving drift of the melody with lines that stretch and transform but seldom break. It felt like a personal song, a message coming straight from the singer to the listener, so I wanted to do something equally direct yet simple. So I asked Mike to make a video, straight on, portrait format, of him singing the song in one take looking straight at the camera. This is what I worked with,” says Claytor.
“I’m not very familiar with animation and I don’t know what the short cuts are so I ended up doing 2454 individual drawings for the video. Just one after another from beginning to end. It took about a month of solid drawing. I really got to know mike’s face well, better than my own in fact.”
The video’s animation perfectly suits the song, which is gentle in all aspects. The calm, flowing sound of guitar, violin, and a gentle drum beat accompany Feuerstack soothing vocals and comforting lyrics. Though the overarching theme may be more complex, it is so easy to listen to.
“None [of the drawings] were perfect, but together they added up to something, an end point impossible to reach without letting go, going with the flow, and living with mistakes. […] After all, ‘death is just a breath away but love is all around.’”
The synergy between the music and the illustrations come as no surprise upon learning that Feuerstack and Claytor are in fact long-time friends.
“Jon Claytor is someone I’ve known since the 8th grade, growing up in Moncton. We’ve collaborated countless times over our many years of friendship and this was just a byproduct of our lifelong friendship. I’m eternally grateful and I feel lucky to have such a masterpiece sitting next to my song,” says Feuerstack.
Natural Weather will be officially released on May 25th.