Our Song of the Day comes from Buck Curran (recently featured here) whose latest video for Ghost On The Hill was made by his daughter Shylah. She has managed to capture the essence of this song perfectly with whispers of the supernatural hinted at through very perceptive framing and ethereal choice of scenes. She clearly has a very keen photographers eye and knows how to reveal the magic in the everyday scenes that would otherwise pass us by. That’s a skill you develop over time and she has clearly nurtured this through a passion for photography. We look forward to seeing more from Shylah in the future.
Buck Curran:
“In early February of this year, I’d been talking with Shanti about the idea of having her make a video to accompany my song ‘Ghost On the Hill’, which I’d written and recorded in January and had just decided to include on my forthcoming album ‘No Love Is Sorrow’.
“Thematically the song is based in Maine and revolves around personal life experience with a few supernatural elements stirring about. Shanti is a great photographer of landscapes, so I was focused on the idea of having her surreal images of land and atmosphere accompany the music. And of course, we’ve already collaborated in the past, making videos together for our recordings as the psych-folk duo Arborea. During our conversation, she mentioned that our daughter Shylah had started developing a great interest in video making and suggested that I might want to ask her to get involved. Shylah had already been doing photography since she was very young (she took the photo used for the cover of Arborea’s album ‘Fortress Of The Sun‘ when she was 9 years old), and so I didn’t waste any time in writing to ask if she might be interested in making the video….thinking that filming in Maine in late Winter (along with the lyrics and mood of the song) would be perfect for creating the misty atmosphere needed for the video. While we were talking I asked if she had ever seen the Stanley Kubrick film ‘Barry Lyndon’ and mentioned how stunning his still shots are in that film (looking like epic paintings). I also told her about the special lenses that Kubrick used while filming in low light conditions (candlelight, etc). Shylah mentioned how cool that was and that she was already learning about those kinds of things in her high school film class.
“After agreeing to do the video, Initially, the idea was that she’d film with a Super 8 and combine it with frames taken with her digital camera, but due to complications with time, weather and the pandemic, she ended up working with only digital footage. It’s also interesting to note that Shylah just turned 17 at the beginning of April and this is the first video she’s ever made (she did both the filming and editing ). I am beyond happy we’ve managed to collaborate on this project and extremely proud of the work she’s done here. The video is not only made of beautiful and surreal moments, but it also has some very subtle elements within, that are slowly revealed upon repeated watching. Shanti also gets credit and big thanks for devoting some of her time to helping drive around the countryside as Shylah captured raw footage needed for the video. And so here, we present Shylah Curran’s video for ‘Ghost On The Hill’.
“Thanks so much for watching and we hope you enjoy her debut as a videographer!”
‘Ghost On The Hill’ by Buck Curran from the new album ‘No Love Is Sorrow’ (April 2020). Video filmed and edited by Shylah Curran. Film Location: Maine
Order No Love is Sorrow here: https://obsoleterecordings.bandcamp.com/album/no-love-is-sorrow