Anyone familiar with Chad Vangaalen will know of his trippy, alien-like creature illustrations, which inhabit equally alien vibrantly coloured worlds. His latest music video for ‘Samurai Sword‘ (our Song of the Day) is hands-down, his best yet, taken from ‘World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener’, his new album —out on CD/LP/DSPs March 19th, 2021 worldwide through Sub Pop and in Canada from Flemish Eye (more below).
From the extended opening sequence in all its bubblegum-coloured vividness to the monochromatic animation that accompanies the song, it is pure genius. The tinkling percussive opening (played on old copper pipes – more on below) is enhanced by the beautiful zen-like swaying bamboo and insect life which sets the scene for the ongoing search for a legendary samurai sword on a beautiful psychedelic ancient Japanese world – there is just so much going on (like the little Sun Ra tribute), I love it.
VanGaalen says of Samurai Sword, “I had just ripped a bunch of old leaking copper pipe out of my basement in a reno job that I jumped into willy nilly. Realizing how magical the pipes sounded, I put them on some dirty styrofoam and banged out the janky beat that introduces the song! Garbage is life.”
He continues, “It just spilled out in a couple minutes. I didn’t try to stop it because I was smiling like I was just cruising through my neighbourhood. Simple like a sandbox. An ode to the simplicity. It’s hard to let things be simple. But simple is easy on the mind, and being jovial in song is something I find really difficult. Why? What?”
The video for “Samurai Sword” gives viewers a peek into VanGaalen’s surrealistic world, expanding the 2:04 album version to a gloriously weird extended version with a 3:39 run time. He elaborates: “I was drawing black and white plant backgrounds for this song because of the great old samurai movies of the past. I like how nature sometimes takes the lead. I was getting all knotted in my mind about the sky. I looked at my dad’s watercolor paintings of a sky, and felt like I couldn’t get the feel right. So, I just borrowed his sky for a scene and then I realized that my dad’s paintings were perfect and already full of real life energy. I used them to finish the video and felt like we got to go on this quest together. In my mind. Fuck time.”
VanGaalen has also created the “Samurai Sword Scavenger Hunt” contest, with Easter eggs hidden throughout the video. He’s sharing a list of some of these hidden objects every week, and challenging fans to find them. He says, “To stop myself going squirrely over the last few months, I started hiding things as I animated this video.”
Every week for the next three weeks (through to February 18th, 2021), one lucky person will win a prize pack of stuff from VanGaalen, including a copy of ‘World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener’, as well as some unique personalised items made by VanGaalen himself. At the end of the contest, one person will be awarded a grand prize (You need to enter all three phases to win the grand prize!). To enter, please visit https://chadvangaalen.com/samuraisword.
‘World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener’is now available for preorder through Sub Pop. LPs purchased through megamart.subpop.com, Flemish Eye (Canada), select independent retailers in North America, in the U.K. and in Europe will receive the album on orange gold vinyl with blue/red trails (while supplies last). There is also a new T-shirt design available.
‘World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener’ is released on March 19, 2021.
Photo credit: Sebastian Buzzalino