LYRICS:

Concrete, concrete, concrete night. You build it high. You build it tight. You think of it as light, as bright. Singing, singing, singing, singing in the night. Singing, singing, singing, singing out of sight. I want to be. I want to be. You want to be. We think we want to be, but do we actually know who we are, who we really, really are? Under the façade. Under the ocean. Under the space. Under that far, far, far away place.

Why would you want to go? Why would you want to know? If, you don't actually use your voice ... If, you don't actually go out to space ... If you don't actually understand what is under the ocean and above this place ... Do you really, really, really, really actually really care? Do you actually see the space and the stars and the land's that underneath? Do you actually figure out what's underneath those teeths. Those teeth, those teeth, those teeth. You pull them, pull them, pull them tight. Tight, tight, tight, like concrete night.

ABOUT:

Directors Charlie Nordstrom and Laksmi Hedemark capture the spirit of improvisation in this introspective video for artist Shantell Martin’s debut music release. The New York-based Brit is best known for her stream-of-consciousness drawings—oftentimes forming one unbroken line. Here, Nordstrom and Hedemark offer some insight into their video which features performers from Oakland-based dance company TURFinc:

“Much like when Martin approaches a blank canvas, she and the dancers didn't meet until the cameras started rolling. In fact, Martin's lyrics are often unknown to her until she's saying them. In this video, what is captured is an incredible glimpse of a group of artists melding together to create a visual and oral piece of art.

“What is captured is an incredible glimpse of a group of artists melding together”

"The challenge was, how do we let the world see this other part of an artist, while also building off what they already know of her? To do this we referenced Martin's strong use of lines and the black and white worlds she explores in her work, while keeping the video simple enough to draw focus to the artist and her words.”

CREDITS