LA-based songwriter, producer and film composer Michael Whittle is rolling out his debut album Like Shadows Do song by song through No Ghost Records. Today we’re premiering the video for the latest instalment, “Again We Wake On Fire”, which is out now.
The clip is directed by Maude Lee, a design director at CAA’s Brand Studio whose recent work includes branding Ryan Gosling’s production company Open Invite. It keeps things stark. It’s night on the beach, and Whittle is fully clothed and soaked through by the waves, singing straight down the lens. He looks haunted, like someone still searching for an answer he suspects isn’t coming.
The song matches the picture. Whittle’s vocal starts restrained, almost constricted, sitting in a dusty, atmospheric mix before the track builds in intensity around it. The drums are by Madi Vogt (Finneas, Kim Gordon, Julien Baker, Alison Wonderland). Everything else is Whittle, who also self-produced the record. He cites 90s slacker rock and post-punk as touchstones, but this one sits firmly at the brooding end of that spectrum.
There’s an intensity here that’s utterly compelling. It creeps up on you, and as Whittle sings, it gets under your skin. Lyrically, he’s caught between wanting to protect someone and fearing what he’s become, and by the end he’s just repeating a line about grace, over and over. It’s the sort of track that unfolds with each listen, its beauty and pain interleaved and taut.
The starting point was Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 film Burning.
“I am drawn to art that needs no explanation,” Whittle says. “I love leaving a theatre with a feeling that sticks with you long after the credits roll. After watching Burning I felt something between pain and desire. I wanted to write a song that explored the relationship between those emotions. It is about chasing something that you can’t quite ever get and having to live with the consequence of that.”
That cinematic instinct makes sense given his day job. Whittle has scored the feature films One of Us, Vineyards and Chasing Plastic, and has written music for campaigns for Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Google Pixel, Rip Curl and The Trevor Project, among others. Yes, I know, outrageously talented.
Watch the video below. “Again We Wake On Fire” is out now via No Ghost Records.
You can keep up to date with Michael Whittle via Instagram, YouTube and his Website
