Video: Skullcrusher, ‘Whatever Fits Together’

on
0
Skullcrusher (Photo by Angela Ricciardi)

Under the name Skullcrusher, Helen Ballantine sings placidly but swings from the heels.

The New York-bred songwriter’s ambient folk music often seems to come from another time, carried by the clouds of memory. And visually, that feeling is conveyed in the video for Skullcrusher’s new single, “Whatever Fits Together.”

The video arrived today with the news that Skullcrusher’s debut album, “Quiet the Room,” will be out Oct. 14 via Secretly Canadian. It’s her first full-length following the acclaimed EPs “Storm in Summer” (2021) and “Skullcrusher” (2020).

The video, the work of Silken Weinberg and Angela Ricciardi, harks to the era of silent movies.

“The video for ‘Whatever Fits Together’ is a nightmare of phantasmagoria, taking inspiration from ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ and one of my favorite silent films, ‘Shoes,’” Weinberg says. “We felt this song needed a darker atmosphere in order to shed light on its essential message: to address the monsters that exist in the shadows. Aiming to keep it simple, we created a black void and Angela Ricciardi filmed on black and white Super 8. In the end, it became a series of confrontations.”

Of the song, Skullcrusher says, “I wrote ‘Whatever Fits Together’ while reflecting on my past and wondering how I might begin to explain it to someone. I viewed my younger self through a wash of emotions: anger, sadness, pity, confusion, all reaching for a kind of compassion. I tried to capture the contradictions that comprise my past and define who I am now. As I looked back, I saw my life in pieces: some moments blacked out, some extremely vivid, some leading nowhere. Through the song I attempt to piece it together in some non-linear form and accept my disparate story.”

Like her EPs, the new song was co-produced by Noah Weinman.

Skullcrusher will appear this weekend at the Newport Folk Festival, followed by short tours and an L.A. record-release show in October.

||| Watch: The video for “Whatever Fits Together”

||| Live: Skullcrusher celebrates the release of “Quiet the Room” on Oct. 17 at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever. Tickets.

||| Previously: Live at the Lodge Room, “Storm in Summer” EP, “Song for Nick Drake,” “Places/Plans”