Music videos seem to have gone the way of the dodo, or at least swing dancing, but every once-in-a-while someone drops something that is so beautifully composed, shot and written that you have a suspicion the art form may make a comeback. The Toronto-based duo Mear has just created such a moment with their video for “Soft Chains”. In support of their upcoming release of the same name, this team, made up of Greg Harrison and Frances Miller, have with their crew of fellow dreamers, constructed a piece of work that feels like it’s pulled straight from the memory banks of everything you ever loved about music and music videos.
The video for “Soft Chains” opens with ethereal, breezy sounds and moves into the warm strings of a folky guitar. But soon we feel the ancient sounds of a folding pump organ, circa 1904, which fills the space with a Celtic vibe that blends perfectly with Frances’ angelic vocals. We open with images of flies and then a cozy cabin bathed in light, but soon the vocals stir and we feel the more sinister side of the song: “If I loved you love me any less, would you be calling me a fool?” We feel Frances’ lyrics reaching deeply into the well of an abusive and manipulative relationship.
The visuals then take us through some gorgeous sepia frames as we are dropped into a spider rich kaleidoscope of images and sounds. Watching I was brought back to the early days of REM, and later Bjork, who Frances sites as a definite influence for the video’s look.
Frances is no stranger to the music scene in Toronto, having been the lead singer for Little City, and graduated from the RTA program at Ryerson. She is presently a Ph.D. candidate at York University in Ethnomusicology.
Greg Harrison brings depth and rich sounds through the pump organ and keyboards, filling the space between images with a texture and grace that fans of his work can spot through the forest. Greg has been at the cutting edge of sound with projects such as Grej, the striking beats of Taktus, and also touring the world as the drummer and sound maker for a fellow-Frederictonian, Jeremy Dutcher.
“Soft Chains” was in fact the first piece of music that Frances and Greg collaborated on.
After some years working together at Massey Hall, Frances had become a fan of Greg’s electronic works and compositions. She sent him an acoustic cut of the song and that same night he came back with a completely reimagined version of the song with huge electronic interludes.
Together with the visual artist Kerry Zentner, who directed and edited the video, the team brought elements of fairy tales, literature and the early music videos of Michel Gondry, whose work with Bjork, among others, is around every corner here.
Other influences come to the surface for the sharp eye. The film The Fly has its place in the visual language of the video, as does the metaphor of being caught in a spider’s web, unable to pull free of the sticky and alluring trap of a relationship that on its surface is good. “Keep me from my friends, who tell me that you are no good.”
There is also a gentle throwback to horror movies of a certain era, the presence of green slime being eaten and the transformation that it brings.
Kerry’s vision combined with theirs to bring dreamscapes and strangely lit sequences that bring to mind other masters of the genre, swinging through the halls of silent film and early cinema. All the while the music is building to a crescendo as Frances’ vocals and Greg’s instruments lay a framework for the story.
I will bear the brunt of some criticism here, but to deny the haunting sounds of Joni Mitchell in Frances’ voice would just be dishonest. She fills the air around her and when the song is over, you feel the absence.
Mear has once again set a high bar for beauty in sound and image, and I for one am excited for the rest of the album. If this video is anything to go by, we are going to be filling our days and nights with the sounds of these two for some time to come.