If you were to read my bio here at Rule29 (or one of my recent blog posts), you’d find that I have a particular obsession with music videos. And if I’m honest, on occasion, I imagine my life to actually BE a music video. This was the case again this morning as I drove through to work through some light snow flurries. The song?
“Snow” by the local Chicago based group Sleeping at Last.
This experience “might” have something to do with the fact that I had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with the group last month on the video itself (ended up handling all the post and editing for the project). Consequently (having seen the video 100+ times), the sight of snow is forever connected to the video and song. Fortunately, I not only love the song, but loved the concept behind the video…
“What images come to mind when you think of winter?”
This was the question posed by the duo (Ryan O’Neal and Dan Perdue) last month in order to not only inspire the video, but to actually populate it. In short, the band decided to welcome their fan base to respond to the question via (video) images. This simple concept is brilliant: embrace (and trust) your community. In fact, throughout the process, I was taken back by a) the community’s quick response (only gave a few days notice) and b) the band’s desire to utilize everyone who submitted something. While the latter made things somewhat of a challenge in the editing process, the decision to utilize whatever “shows up” says something about the band’s commitment to both their community and the creative process that we all could benefit from.
We often forget that others and/or our community are one of the primary reasons we create in the first place. We want others to experience our art. And vice versa, we want to be a part of experience the art of others. Why do you listen to music? See a film? Go to a museum? The pursuit of art and beauty is embedded into our DNA. Consequently, its all the more beautiful when an artists invites others into the creative process – and trusts it! Check out the video above and see what “showed up”… Enjoy!
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Sleeping at Last is Ryan O’Neal (voice, guitars, pianos) and Dan Perdue (bass, pianos) – a group that has been playing together since 1998 in the Chicago area. After gaining a strong local following around Chicago, they begin to open for bands such as The Appleseed Cast and Switchfoot – which eventually attracted the attention of Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), who got them signed to Interscope Records in 2002. The band has since released 3 full length albums and numerous EPs. The duo is currently working on their most aggressive project to date entitled “Yearbook” – releasing a mini-EP-of-sorts each month with three new songs release on the first of every month. This project began in October of 2010 and will continue through this upcoming September. We highly recommend.