Coddington shines light on Lantern
Rmike.alexander@fairfaxmedia.co.nz MUSICIAN Anna Coddington has turned filmmaker for her new single Lantern. It’s the second single to be released this year from her upcoming album Luck/Time.
‘‘I often describe songs as being like dreams – in that they can sometimes be strange bits and pieces your subconscious has cobbled together, and you recognise where those pieces have come from and understand why your brain has put them together, but when you try to explain it to someone else they look at you like ‘riiiiiiiiight’,’’ Coddington says.
‘‘ Lantern is one of those songs. The most coherent theme comes from the fact that when you have a child, your own identity undergoes a sudden and extreme makeover.
‘‘Everyone defines themselves by certain things, and for me I was mostly a person who makes music and a person who does karate. Both things came with their own social circle, their own sets of routine and ritual, et cetera.
‘‘I had spent years establishing my place in these things, and both things became almost impossible with a newborn baby. I imagine everyone has their own version of this – temporarily giving up the things you’d always been patted on the back for and used as markers for your progress in life. Giving up your own glory in the name of something more important in that moment (that’s your baby, obvs).’’ ‘‘I wanted something a little bit rough around the edges and knew I could do it myself.’’ ‘‘It’s a stop-motion video. I hung an old Sony handycam from a mic stand above a blackboard, then started putting things on the blackboard and moving them bit by bit and adding to them and using a little remote for the handycam to take short shots as I went. I’ve always been a secret craft nerd and really enjoyed making this video. I would do one section of the song (intro, a verse, et cetera) in a day, then as I fell asleep that night, think about what I could do for the next section. I didn’t have a plan for the whole thing from the start, I just felt it out as I went. You can actually see as you watch it that I got better and more confident at doing it as I went along.’’ ‘‘The song is a mysterious mix of symbolism and influence that I don’t even fully understand. It has to do with reclaiming your identity and believing that you are a glorious lantern, even if most of the time no one can tell because it’s usually daytime when they see you. But it’s also about wanting to feel like you matter to someone – ‘oh I want someone I can redefine’. Maybe that refers to someone else, or maybe yourself. I don’t know.
‘‘The video tries to reflect that – the little flame keeps getting lost in all the other s . . . on the blackboard, then redefining the scene – burning down the whole screen for a clean slate. I didn’t think too hard on the symbolism for the video, I just followed my instincts.
‘‘Both the song and video carry an influence from melancholic children’s stories and illustrations that I read my son, particularly The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle. It’s kind of desperate and sad, then happy at the end and the pictures are kind of rough and childlike, which makes them a little haunting to me.’’ Interview courtesy of Loop Media NZ