We’ve been sweet on the music of Boston’s Matthew Connor ever since the singer did the unthinkable and crooned all sorts of lovely over electro beats and synthy treats in late-2000s party starters Provocateur. In recent years he’s made a name for himself as a solo artist, stripping his sound down and going back to songwriting basics at a time when most artists are doing the opposite. There’s just no need for grand sonic posturing when you have a voice like Connor’s.
His deep bedroom croon once again takes center stage in his new single, “How Is July Already Over?”, the first offering from October’s upcoming Farewell Motel record. In the song’s music video, which premiered on Out last week, Connor teams up with New York-based photographer Marc McAndrews for a stop-motion video that took more than 21,000 frames to shoot. The black and white clip, which has a real old-timey, classic feel, utilized roughly 4,000 of those frames, telling the tale of Connor’s past love by haunting the joints he and his lover once frequented.
“It was very collaborative with the director and the actor, really,” Connor tells Vanyaland. “We spent a few weeks talking on the phone (and in bars) and coming up with ideas. I had the basic concept in mind that in the video I would take a road trip with a new boyfriend, and we’d end up at a hotel and something bad would happen and we’d realize the relationship wasn’t working. We spent a long time trying to figure out what that ‘something bad’ would be before Marc asked, ‘Hey, what if Hunter’s dead?’ So the video kind of turned into me going to all the different places where we fell in love and reenacting these moments with his ghost.”
Oh shit, SPOILER ALERT!
Connor adds: “The vintage feel was all Marc’s doing! He came up with the brilliant idea of doing it in stop motion to give it this kind of dreamy, out-of-time effect. We decided to style it like an old-fashioned romance, but still use a modern taxicab and various other current-day objects to play up this idea of holding onto the past and lost loves, etc. Plus, any excuse to buy a new tuxedo, really.”
We agree. Watch “How Is July Already Over?” below…
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