After his videos last year for Mini Skirt and Taste, Kevan Funk resumes his creative collaboration with Montreal band Braids on a piece that draws on the emotion of the song with a strong visual device. 

In Companion, shot in a spectacular modernist house near Desert Hot Springs in California, Braids singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston indeed has a companion - herself. The two Raphaelles are physically the same (of course) but are different - one more emotional, the other more restrained and observant. But both accompany each other on the song, and the effect is mesmerizing and moving.

It's another example of the acute directing talent of Kevan Funk, who wrapped on his first feature, Hello Destroyer, earlier this year.

KEVAN FUNK:

"The video for Companion is the third time that I’ve had the opportunity to work with BRAIDS. It’s a collaborative process that I have always deeply appreciated, not simply as fan of their music but because of the depth of the material. This was certainly true again in the case of Companion.

"I was sent the track without any sort of notes about what the band wanted or expected the video to be or what the song was specifically about, so the concept was born from a very unfiltered emotional response to the material. There is a hauntingly sombre beauty to the music, which strongly coloured the overall tone of the final piece, but it was a particular resonance I felt with the song’s opening line (‘It had nothing to do with you, how can I make that more clear’) that ultimately shaped the video’s concept.

"To me, that line felt like it had a reflective quality to it, this internalized conversation about reconciliation, forgiveness and empathy. I was interested in the tension of how we view and value ourselves and what that really means when we talk a about growth. The idea of articulating an internal confrontation of those more powerfully debilitating obstacles (such as trauma, regret, habit, self-loathing), that which fosters a state of emotional purgatory, became the central conceit of the video.  

"A formal element that was inherent in this concept of reflection was the idea of duality, which proved to be another important component of the video. The setting (the use of the domestic space juxtaposing natural space) was a key part of this. As well, setting the video in the desert was a nod to the fact that Deep In The Iris was written partially in the desert and partially tuck away in the woods (where the Miniskirt video was set). 

"I've always been profoundly moved by Raphelle's power as a performer and the emotional vulnerability that she is able to access. I wanted to focus on this, which lead to choosing to keep the video very sparse and still, letting the raw emotion of the moment carry through."