Ian William Craig’s ‘Arrive, Arrive’ has been given some visual accompaniment in the shape of a new video, and you can check it out above. The track is taken from recent album Centres, one of two albums that he released earlier this year.
Craig uses tape decks to create ambient effects, and appreciates them for the fact that “they allow me a sense of improvisation with the material and sense of discovery I wouldn’t have been able to achieve on my own. They produce an element of chaos that I tend to revel in", as he told us last year.
Centres is available to purchase on Bandcamp alongside the rest of his discography.
At the same pace as the minimal track itself, this new video depicts monochromatic footage of a journey past forestry and houses, shot through a train window at disorientating angles. The video was shot by Craig himself, spontaneously while on tour, and we asked him a few questions about it below.
Is there any particular reason why you used this journey as a location for the film shot?
Ian William Craig: The music deals with the themes of travelling and process as perpetual aspects of life, and how we never really arrive anywhere, or rather kind of are always arriving in a way. I shot the whole thing on my recent and first tour, which was a blur of changing scenery on the backdrop of this big profound thing in my life that I’ve always wanted to do. It seemed appropriate to document the shifting between one place and another and another as a way to illustrate the song. The video that resulted is kind of a visual document of how I remember the experience being.
What equipment was used to film the shot?
IWC: Actually, I was hoping this would stay secret, but I just shot the whole thing on my phone while I was on tour. I’m so used to using old clunky/break-y analogue equipment that it was a huge trip to just have this small pocketable thing that worked all of the time to do all of the heavy lifting. I composited the images with Final Cut afterwards in a kind of train-of-thought fashion.
Does the creation of visual art such as this film bear any relation to your process as a musician and songwriter?
IWC: Yes, I’m not sure they relate to one another quite as eloquently as I’d like at the moment, but I do feel like someday they’ll both be parts of the same fluid expression. Having a background in printmaking has given me a useful creative structure that I can apply to my practice in general, dealing as it does with layers, matrices, process and anachronistic equipment.
Is Canada getting a rise in citizenship applications in the heat of the US election?
IWC: You know, I had a kind of joke answer written here which seems kind of crass at the moment given the new unfortunate circumstances. There are a lot of people hurting at the moment and there is a real sense of tension in Canada today. I can only imagine what it must be like south of the border. But yes, on election night, the Americans did manage to crash the Canadian immigration website, which seemed funny at the time, but now I realise probably a good chunk of those people were being serious.
Do you still sing any opera?
IWC: Only at my students when they leave paint in places they shouldn’t. Usually works better than yelling.
