Devin Townsend Unleashes Absolutely Epic Music Video for “Spirits Will Collide”
All the way back in September, before Empath even had a release date, Devin Townsend revealed in a massive info dump that he would soon be heading to Serbia to film a video of “epic scale” for the song “Spirits Will Collide,” which he described as an “anti-suicide song.”
Today we get to see that video. And doing so makes it readily apparent how Devin was able to drop $170,000 of his own money on making Empath — just this video alone is stunning! I’m not clear on why the video needed to be shot in Serbia — the CGI is impressive, and the live shots are gorgeous, but couldn’t those things be done anywhere? — but I’m sure Devy had his reasons, possibly related to the team behind the video and the extras being willing to work on what he calls “a shoestring budget.” In Devin we trust! He explains:
“‘Spirits Will Collide’ as a song is pretty standard fare for me if you’ve followed what I’ve done over the past few years. It’s ultimately an ‘anti-suicide’ statement and it’s meant to be melodic and straightforward. A video with a CGI Gorilla playing bass and Elephants playing drums in front of a billion people is so ridiculously dumb that I’m surprised it makes me feel as happy as it does, but the theme of the song is essentially about trying to convince kids or teens to ‘hang on’ when they feel depression or suicidal thoughts. The story of the video is about a kid that has a fantasy about playing at a massive concert with thousands of people as a choir, animals etc…just the biggest concert he can imagine, and the strength of the sound and the intention of a bunch of people singing together is such that the sound blows away the darkness.
“It’s admittedly a bit ridiculous, but I guess in a way I feel that beauty is much harder to be expressed quietly in this day and age, so the video is about saying it louder than ANYTHING. Without a multi-million dollar budget, it was hard to do. However, Kudos to iCode Team and the hundreds of extras for really pulling this out on a shoestring budget, I think it gets the point across.
“The only thing I would say that if I was a kid imagining playing the universes biggest concert, I would have added a full head of hair in there for good measure =)”
So: check it out below! It is indeed on quite an “epic scale.” Empath comes out today, and can be ordered here. Read our official review of the album if you’re into that sort of thing.
