(Premiere) Fool Underwater- Bad Magic (New Music Video)
Bad Magic just released a new music video for their track “Fool Underwater” and I’m pretty sure this is the trippiest Canadian music video I’ve seen so far in 2020…and I watch a lot of music videos! I’ve never seen a group make something so colourful look so dark. The song in itself is amazing, with a great blend of blues and rock, topped with a very powerful vocal performance by singer Eric Novak, but once you add this cinematic and haunting imagery behind it, now you’ve really yourself a great music video!
The video builds up the antipation right from the very beginning, with an almost silent scene between Novak and a tarot reader. There seems to be a homage back to their last music video Miss Ramona (another great one to check out if you haven’t already)… or maybe I’m just reading too far into things. From there, things get crazy as the Vancouver 4 piece drags you deeper and deeper into a surreal world of their own. This video is filled with what I can only describe as beautiful chaos. “Fool Underwater” is truly a piece of art, even more so when you find out the meanings behind all of it. When asked about it, Novak told us
“I wrote this song as a quasi-three-way conversation with myself trying to address the feeling of futility with depression while navigating the onset panic that anxiety can present. It started with the visual idea of someone heading out to open water on a sinking ship, smiling and waving to their land-locked loved ones, blissfully unaware of the impending catastrophe. The sailor doesn’t see the leak as a problem at the beginning but when they inevitably realize they won’t make it, they tell themselves that going down with the ship is some sort of noble pursuit – that they are going to fight the devil in the deep blue sea – when in reality they are just a mislead fool thrashing in the water who has set off on a hastily planned journey to the detriment of themselves and those who love them.
When I get depressed it feels like an extremely soft, heavy blanket is wrapping me tight and keeping me down. For me, depression can manifest as a sweet soothing voice telling me that I’m silly for trying to fight its advances and that it’s okay to just give up on everything. It manipulates me with pet names like ‘babe’ and ‘love’ while mocking my attempts to get better. I tried to explore that dialogue through the lyrics and create a confusing subject/audience relationship as sometimes it’s hard to tell which voice is talking to which in our heads.
The other side of the song speaks to the voice of anxiety; hastily taking action to fight those feeling of lethargy without a plan to combat the depressive state. This can generally take the form of mania and can result in reckless, self-destructive behavior. But amidst all the chaos of twisting and turning on open water there is always a small voice calling us to find solid ground, to find a moment of peace and connection. I wrote the music to emulate the feeling of waves on the ocean. It begins calm and smooth with rise and reprieve, slowly picking up frantic energy until it culminates in a battle cry of self-realization amidst the depths of the internal struggle we catch ourselves sinking into all too often that ‘I want my soul back, so I’m treading water’.
Keep your head high.”
The band will be celebrating the new track tonight at The Wise Hall in Vancouver – along with the madmen in The Fallaways and Brass Camel! To find more info on tonights event visit
https://www.facebook.com/events/929065777495300/
I’m going to go give this another watch, because I can’t get enough of it. If you want to keep up with Bad Magic follow them on facebook at the link below
