✿ ︴M A N I C ! ꩜ creating magic with SOFWÜ
artwork hand-painted by dylana rain for the cover of manic by sofwü
hi angels!₊˚⊹♡
i am so excited to share with you a project and collaboration unlike anything i’ve ever done before, but we should probably begin at the beginning…
the first time i heard this song was at one of liz’s dj sets in 2022, before she had decided on the name sofwü or even to really pursue music. but i knew from the moment i heard it, that i needed this song in my life. i would be going about my day humming the melody and forgetting the words.
fast forward to february of 2023, liz reaches out to alex (the love of my life♡) to see if he would be interested in shooting and directing a music video for her. when he told me, i instantly lit up and was like “is it the one song i really like!?” (it was hehe)
we were planning on throwing a surprise party for our friend’s birthday at a large warehouse that same month, where we would be setting up a video wall and throwing a big jam shesh. since the party was gonna be on a friday, and the warehouse was closed over the weekend- it provided a perfect window to shoot the music video with the video wall already up.
a couple weeks before the big weekend, liz reaches out to me to ask how i would feel about using my art as the background visuals in the video. to say i was excited would be an understatement. seriously.
i was being given by the universe the opportunity to work on a project alongside my best friend and an artist i admired dearly- on a song that i absolutely loved.
how could i say no to that???
with there not being enough time to create art specifically for the video, i compiled a bunch of my art into a folder- almost like a mini portfolio- and played around with those.
𖦹₊﹒the day of the shoot₊✶
we started the day by rallying at liz’s house, where she showed us the latest version of manic and shot the intro to the music video.
opening on a scene of liz waking up in bed, we wanted to capture the kinda confusing silenty/buzzy feeling you have in your head when you’re first starting the day.
after we got our shots, i got to help with makeup and styling. she needed to go from dazed and confused to hot and in charge. and that’s exactly what we did. because feeling manic is about embodying all of it.
when we got to the warehouse, we set up lights and got everything all ready to go.
while liz and alex shot different scenes for different parts of the song, i got to control the video wall behind her :)
we wanted this video to feel as playful as possible, so i really tried to honor the intuitiveness of choosing art for what was going on in the moment.
it was such a surreal feeling getting to see my art so large and vibrant, accompanying such talented people. and i really felt my job title of being a creative.
once we were done with a full day of shooting, it was up to alex to take the scenes and stitch them together. i got to have a really unique insider’s perspective of the piecing together of this music video because alex and i live together, so i would get to see scenes as he completed them or give my opinion when he needed a second set of eyes.
₊˚✧꒰" creating the cover "꒱₊˚✧
meanwhile, it comes up in conversation that she still hadn’t chosen a cover for the song, so i decided to shoot my shot and offer to paint the cover. it’s not anything i had ever done before, but neither was running a video wall.
she loved the idea, and placed her trust in me to create something that visually spoke to the song.
as an intuitive artist, i always find a feeling i wish to channel when creating. this time the feeling was being delivered to me in musical form. so it only makes sense that i would listen to the song when transforming the notes into the physical form.
the best way i could describe manic is the feeling of floating, or swimming.
makes me feel like i’m being swept away with the flow and i’m here for the ride.
so i started with a darker purple like background to kinda signify swimming through the subconscious.
she has a line in the song where she goes, “i open the door”- so i wanted to have things merge in towards this doorway.
the swim-y feeling gave me the idea to do goldfish, but they couldn’t just be regular fish so they needed to have an observer like feeling to them- cue in eye ball gold fish :)
the clouds have always been one of my favorite analogies for thoughts because they are always changing, just passing by. the rainbows signify the properties of light- how multifaceted and dynamic it can be.
i want to give a big shoutout to sofwü music for believing in me and giving me the honor of helping you bring your visions to life with my artwork. you are an angel of a human being and your music is gonna transport people to another world. i am so grateful to be on this journey with you˚ ༘ .˚🌱୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ
there are more projects in the works, so keep your eyes peeled :)
this music video and this song came out perfectly and it’s such a fun display of so many human beings’ creativity. it would mean the world to me if you would go check it out and give sofwü all the love! she worked so hard to bring this into reality and i’m so excited for you to see it (video below) <3
↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-
stream manic everywhere you can listen to music!
ʚ☆ɞ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmJ4I4QoAOA