If Buddy Glass’ 2020 album Wow & Flutter wasn’t on your ‘best of 2020’ list, there’s still time to amend that oversight, with the clip to ‘The Spirit Of A Small Town’ serving as a fitting introduction to his work.
It was back in July that Buddy Glass (the musical moniker of Peabody frontman Bruno Brayovic) shared with us ‘Wasted Habit’, the first taster of his second solo record Wow & Flutter. As the months continued, so did the songs, with the full record arriving in September.
Not content to just let the tunes speak for themselves, Glass kept up a creative streak, adding visuals to the tracks, with ‘Wasted Habit’, ‘If You Sail Out’, and ‘No One Can Tell You You’re Wrong’ getting the music video treatment along the way. Now, with 2021 in full effect, Glass isn’t slowing down, with the phrase “new year, new video” coming to mind today with thanks to his latest directorial effort.
Sharing the video for ‘The Spirit Of A Small Town’, one of the album’s most memorable tracks now boasts a visual accompaniment that feels as though it was a lifetime in the making.
As Glass explains, the track is a rather personal one, with its inspiration based around his mother’s early life in Traiguén, a small town of 6,000 in the south of Chile. A place Glass spent much time in as a child, both before and after arriving in Australia in 1983, the town provides a lot of memories, whether it be the innocent, or the somewhat darker.
“Like many big families in many small towns, there were dark secrets which my cousins and I slowly unravelled as we grew up,” he explains. “My mother’s brother’s suicide by rifle in his bedroom, where my cousins and I had to sleep in many years later…. our parents not knowing that we knew.
“And my auntie’s husband, who was taken by the self-appointed authorities after the 1973 military coup, never to be seen again. The former happened on my grandfather’s birthday, the latter only two days after his death. Tough times.”
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With these images and stories still seared into his mind, Glass accompanies the track with visuals of his family history, turning something of a familial slideshow into a visceral tale that many could almost never dream of.
“To reflect all of this, I used old family photos I found in a shoebox in my mother’s cupboard,” Glass explains. “These are photos of her, her parents, siblings and her friends – all of them set in Traiguén.
“They show scenes that seem so foreign in terms of time and place, but at the same time utterly familiar to me. Beautiful and sad. I recognise a lot of the people, but not all. I also used some archival news shots of the military coup.
“The initial image montage reflects the song’s gentle start, but as the tune gains intensity, so does the rate of photos appearing on the screen. It’s not a standard song video clip, but rather a black and white window into a small part of my family’s story, told in song.”
It’s a striking clip, and one that is powerful in both its simplicity and its message. Of course, my words could never do it justice, so be sure to check out the full clip below ahead of its official release on Friday, January 29th. (And while you’re at it, be sure to check out Buddy Glass’ Bandcamp page for physical copies of Wow & Flutter.)
Check out ‘The Spirit Of A Small Town’ by Buddy Glass:
