Sky_A unveils ambitious motion capture AI music video for debut single 'Spider Silk'

STREAM THE SINGLE HERE:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0sH31bB1zJtvTWOzYb7JBF
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0CBXJMXYQ
DOWNLOAD: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19RJtYIACyaT4Ye2TpBQ1MuXF0j6_9ptB?usp=drive_link

London-based artist Sky_A released his debut single ‘Spider Silk’ on August 11th 2023, taken from his upcoming debut album due later this year.

The project name for writer and producer Sky Ainsbury, Sky_A mixes elements of electronic, rock and acoustic music to paint futuristic yet intimate landscapes of sound.

Working professionally as a filmmaker and audiovisual artist, Sky also brings a strong visual element to this project with a focus on long-form audiovisual experience. 

Sky believes that he may have a form of Synaesthesia and illustrates how he hears music in terms of the shapes of the figures, the colours of the melody and its textures as material. 

Speaking about how his perception of music makes an impact on the music that he creates, Sky explains: “I read once about Tchaikovsky writing the Nutcracker, how each instrument represented a character in the piece, so every time you hear the Oboe, that's the duck, or the fairy or whichever it is. That really stuck with me. So if I say that in my music, the acoustic guitar is flesh, human bodies, the drums and distorted guitar are architecture and machinery, weapons, and the synths are technology, the internet, a kind of convergent consciousness – when I say that I mean it quite literally. I'm approaching composition like a canvas, and there's consistency across the album, there's a story if you dig for it.”

Spider Silk was self-performed and produced, with the addition of virtuoso drums by Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Squarepusher, Jarvis Cocker) and additional production and mixing by Aneek Thapar (65daysofstatic, Rival Consoles, Mazoulew). It lyrically explores the concept of strength in vulnerability. 

Discussing the inspiration behind the song Sky_A says: “Someone told me the riffs and parts I write are quite spidery - moving up and down at the same time like a thing with many legs. I leaned into that with this track, the softness of the acoustic guitar and all these fast repeating notes, spreading this gossamer. They say spider silk is stronger than steel because of its ductility - it can give and take. The song is about learning to trust and be vulnerable in love and the power that comes from that.” 

A music video for the single is set for release on September 22nd 2023. filmed completely DIY by Sky himself, using motion capture and AI.

 "The video was filmed completely DIY, using motion capture with AI to create the animations. I recorded myself dancing, manipulated it with 3D software, and then put the renders through Stable Diffusion to get the different textural effects. The performance footage I shot using a £15 Amazon ring light in the hallway of my pokey flat in Hackney! And for the establishing shot of the television in the abandoned building, I used Midjourney to generate the image, then expanded it with Photoshop Generative Fill to create the foreground.

I work as a video editor, and get so used to huge sums of money being thrown around on very average content, so it was a satisfying experiment to see what I could put together on literally zero budget", explains Sky_A.

ONLINE:
Bandcamp: https://skyasound.bandcamp.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skya.sound
  

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