Telling a Story Through Music
I was driving home late one night with the Backrooms still rattling around in my head. I had the soundtrack on, along with some of Kane Pixels’ other work, and somewhere between one streetlight and the next an idea swam through my head: what if I told a story with no words at all?
That drive is where this video was born. The idea I keep coming back to is a collection of “tales,” each one told from beginning to end through sound and picture alone. That thought eventually became What Waits on the Moonlit Shore.
My mind kept traveling to the sea.
From Sunrise to Moonlight
The first rays of light peek over the horizon and a new day begins. Beneath the water, life is thriving. Unaware of the world above as they drift through the currents. The viewer becomes part of that world, almost as though they’re swimming lazily next to them.
There is beauty there. Wonder.
When we think about the ocean, those are often the things that come to mind. Adventures with endless possibilities! Imagine snorkeling through clear water while the ocean sways around you like aquatic hills. Seagulls line the shore, in search of breakfast. A lone albatross passes overhead. Sunlight dances across the surface. There is something magically delightful about it.
But daylight doesn’t last forever. The sun slips beyond the horizon and you’re left alone. The darkness calls, her song drifting from the depths. And the sea is such a different place at night. The wonders are there, yes, all its beauty. But other possibilities snake into your senses. Like, what lies below that rippling darkness? What creatures creep beneath? Wonderful, ghastly, hauntingly beautiful, yet terrifying in their existence.
As night closes in, our journey begins to change with it. We return toward the ship, unaware that somewhere ahead, something is waiting. Eventually, we find ourselves approaching a strange shore beneath the moonlight. Tall grass lines the water. The place feels somehow forbidden. And farther inland stands an old, dilapidated cottage.
Waiting.
What Does the Cottage Mean?
I’m not sure I want to answer that. What fun would that be for you? I want the viewer (or listener if you don’t watch the video because that works too!) to decide that part for themselves.
One interpretation occurred to me while I was creating the piece: perhaps the journey represents the stages of life. We begin in the light, surrounded by wonder, caught up in all the things there are to experience. Everything is so new. Light, dark. Joy, pain. Love, lost. When you think of the sea, you think of adventure, beauty, wonder.
But one thing always sits at the back of our mind. The intrusive thoughts that stay with us in the dead of the night when we just won’t sleep.
It waits patiently while we sail ahead. Not knowing that eventually we will reach Its shore.
What’s inside?
I think I prefer leaving that answer to whoever is listening.
Building the Story
Everything you hear, I made. I composed the music to carry the arc from light to dark, joy to pain, love to loss, and layered in sound effects and soundbites to tell the parts of the story the melody could not. The imagery is stitched together from free stock footage I found and shaped into the mood I was chasing. It was a strange and wonderful thing to build, assembling a feeling piece by piece until it finally found life on its own.
I wanted you to feel the warmth of that first sunlight and the freedom of the open sea. And then, gradually, I wanted that feeling to change. Because darkness holds its own kind of beauty.
The waves continue crashing. Somewhere in the darkness, a clock is ticking. That’s where I wanted to leave you.
At least…for now.
Watch and listen to What Waits on the Moonlit Shore on YouTube.
If you have a few minutes and a good pair of headphones, I would love for you to take the journey. Let it wash over you, and if you can, watch it in the dark. I hope this one stays with you a while.
I’d love for all of you to tell me:
What do you think is waiting inside the cottage?
