Portland-based singer Charlie Hilton's debut solo album Palana, which is produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portait, is out now on Captured Tracks. Today Hilton premieres the video for "Something For Us All," grainy film-on-film to accompany the magically existential track that finds beauty in loneliness, confusion, and longing. Walls behind walls/ I can't find the edges to the stage that I'm on, she sings with her Nico-esque voice over atmospheric synths, organ, and a touch of guitar. I don't wanna go but I'm already gone...I don't even see what it means to be/ is there anything that's something all the time?
"The film quality connotes memory, and creates a nice distance between subject and audience," Hilton wrote in an email to The FADER about the video. "All I knew was that he would shoot a simple story of romantic nature, shot in Los Angeles. I think L.A. is the perfect backdrop for this song because it makes me think of that paradox between dreams and the mundane, the high and the low. It’s my hometown, so I’m very happy to see all the palm trees and the driving."
"First we shape our tools and then they shape us," the video's director Chris Taylor added. "A potential love story in a potential technology enabled future. Where did our potential go?" How do we know who we are and what we want from others when we're busy obsessing over the objects that we think define us?
"When I wrote the song, I was thinking about how strange the linear quality of our lives are," Hilton continued." We're perpetually moving forward with nothing to cling to, so we look to the self for consistency. There is none. We look to others, but we are all truly alone. On the upside, there is a longing for something real, maybe something inside of us and something we might experience with others (love?). I think that longing is more beautiful than the traditional idea of happiness. It's very natural to be confused about being in the world. If we embrace that confusion, it relieves some of the pressure."
Tour Dates:
4/21 Portland, OR @ Holcene
4/28 Boise, ID @ Neurolux * ^
4/29 Salt Lake City, UT @ Loading Dock * ^
5/2 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock * ^
5/3 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * ^
5/4 Ferndale, MI @ Loving Touch *
5/5 Toronto, ON @ Opera House *
5/8 New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
5/9 Boston, MA @ Sinclair *
5/10 Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb's
5/11 Washington, DC @ Black Cat *
5/12 Richmond, VA @ Broadberry *
5/13 Raleigh, NC @ King's *
5/15 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa *
5/16 Austin, TX @ Mohawk *
5/18 Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
5/19 Costa Mesa, CA @ The Wayfarer
5/20 Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent *
5/21 San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield %
* w/ Wild Nothing
^ w/ Whitney
% w/ Mac DeMarco