Today, Nashville-based pop/folk artist Caleb Groh released the video for “Cloud Cover,” the debut single from his upcoming album, Ocelot, due out in April.
“Cloud Cover,” which is available on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music & iTunes, is a guitar-driven pop ballad that strikes a balance between melancholy and whimsy, laying the groundwork for its accompanying Wes Anderson-esque video, which was shot entirely on 16mm film.
“Funny — there was actually no question as to whether we shoot film or not,” says Groh. “All photographers on this project were film photographers, it was all so innate. John Hanson [who filmed the video] is just great with 16mm, and I had an identical Bolex camera that I’d inherited from my great-great-aunt that would serve as our backup.”
Film, like vinyl to music, is a medium used in order to gain a certain look, sound and feel that can get lost in translation through digital alternatives. In an almost-completely digital modern world, we see artists paying homage to the art of film by adhering to its original medium (Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice was shot in 35mm, Ed Lachman’s Carol in Super 16mm, Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight in 70mm), and a driving factor for that seems to always come down to aesthetic. For Groh and his team, it was no different:
“The aesthetic of 16mm was our sole inspiration. In a sense — the project started with a film, then we landed on ‘Cloud Cover’ as our soundtrack, since the song sounds so much like what was popular at the height of the 16mm medium. The song is hazy and dreamy, that definitely inspired the strange visual tones.”
As for his upcoming album, Ocelot, and the films to accompany it, Groh plans to differentiate his approach and indulge in more modernized mediums.
“I think ‘Cloud Cover’ was an anomaly. Other parts of the album are playfully digital, so I think we plan on matching or even elevating that via digital mediums.”
Subscribe to Caleb Groh’s YouTube channel here.
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