ABOUT

chose this song because while the whole album resides deep in my subconscious from repeated exposure at an early age, the soulful nature of it resounds more deeply with me than any other. I have always read it as a thinly veiled warning not to get trapped in the rat race we are all born into, while also being very much as close to a near birth experience as it’s possible to get in musical language.

I began with that concept in mind, but my intuition wanted to fly with the movement of the music, and in a space of cosmic scale. I extrapolated this to the to star / galaxy / universe birth concept, a primordial star-being pulses into life as its future foreshadows itself.

After lots of experimentation I used simple techniques of NASA public domain space textures flowing through curved shapes coupled with hand held 3D motion, some scans made with a Kinect and other 3D elements. Flight seemed the most appropriate way to express the haunting first half of Breathe, while a simple character emerged from some sketches for the second half. Having them walk relentlessly around a solitary planetoid before taking their leap into life seemed a simple but effective way to express that part of the song. Abstraction and reinventing the techniques that I associate with the band’s formative years seemed an appropriate way to finish, emoting an aspect of the music that has touched countless millions in a way that reflects their creative force and history.

Software used:

Blender 3D
Photoshop
Affinity Photo
After Effects
Procreate Dreams