This collaboration produced for the Inter-Creative Collaborations Project comes courtesy of the immense talents of musician, Carla J Easton and filmmaker Kris Boyle. The song which Carla chose is Better The Devil You Know which was originally performed by Kylie Minogue.
We hope you enjoy this meeting of creative minds and support the Tiny Changes charity fundraiser detailed at the bottom of the article.
Better The Devil You Know – Music: Carla J Easton. Film: Kris Boyle
Carla J Easton – Better The Devil You Know
Some thoughts on the song choice from Carla:
“When I was approached to take part in this project, I was asked to pick a song that meant a lot to me from my youth. A musical memory. There must be hundreds of musical memories tucked away in my record collection, or, gathering dust on old mixtapes and CDs my two big brothers made me over the years as I was growing up. A significant age gap from my elder siblings (they are 7 and 9 years older than me) meant that music was a means for us to come together. A sonic playground. The three of us love music and, as adults, find ourselves immersed in it. One brother writes a music blog and was a founding member of local label Last Night From Glasgow, the other brother works at the Hydro. Then there is me – the kid sister – the one who ended up making music. Our childhood home was littered with NMEs, Melody Makers, copies of Smash Hits, old acoustic guitars, keyboards and an upright piano. We had cupboards full of old VHS tapes full of home recordings of The Chart Show, The Word, TOTP, TFI Friday and The O Zone. There are a lot of musical memories between us.
During the last year, as a means to keep connected, if we didn’t feel much like talking to each other we would make ‘digital mixtapes’ for each other and pass them around – the ‘Siblings Lockdown Playlists’. We carefully curated songs for each other from all eras and genres. What struck me most, was that in a challenging year, all three of us (despite being a lot older) were still capable of introducing each other to songs we had never heard before. New musical memories.
I wanted to choose a song to cover that reminded me of my youth – particularly in the early nineties. As a family we would sit around the dinner table with a battered TV and terrible aerial to watch Neighbours. I was obsessed with Kylie Minogue. I’d pretend I was Charlene and lie on a skateboard to pull myself under my brothers bunkbeds, armed with a screwdriver, pretending I was a mechanic sliding underneath a car. Sometimes my brothers would join in, despite being far too old to play ‘make-believe’. I don’t think I’ve ever not-loved Kylie Minogue. She’s consistently released music throughout my entire life.
‘Better The Devil You Know’ was written and recorded as Minogue was ready to leave the soap that had projected her to stardom and made her a National sweetheart. When it was released it was considered ‘edgy’ for her girl next door image. It’s a euphoric piece of pop music, one of my favourite Kylie singles of all time. The music video is almost defiant. When we take away the production and sheen, the lyrics are heartbreakingly sad and desperate. ‘I’ll forgive and forget if you say you’ll never go’. I thought it would be a challenge to take one of my all-time favourite pop records and delve deeper into those darker tones, provide a soundscape of synths to hammer home the almost stalker like lyrics yet still maintain that pure pop euphoria.
It was recorded and mixed remotely with my band who play live/ record with me – I call them My Dreamers On The Run – and mastered by Jon Huxtable at Smallfish Recordings.”
Kris Boyle gives his thoughts on his vision for Carla’s song choice:
“On hearing the first few bars of Carla’s recording I knew the visuals needed to be full of colour. I also wanted to reference the Jim Lambie cover art for Carla’s last LP ‘Weirdo.’ I was mesmerised with the track & spent almost a day listening on repeat. It was like jumping into a beautiful untouched pool of liquid, velvet sound. Then the ending of the song is this huge, pounding synth landscape. Drawing on some of the lyrical themes of Carla’s work on ‘Weirdo’ I thought this part should be really visually visceral.“
As all the creatives involved have given of their time and incredible talent freely, we decided it would be appropriate to release the songs (for FREE download) on our Bandcamp page but ask anyone who downloads the tracks to please consider a donation to the Tiny Changes charity which was set up by the family of Scott Hutchison who was a founding member of Frightened Rabbit. Scott took his own life after years of battling with mental health issues. The family felt compelled to set up Tiny Changes as a mechanism to support projects which positively impact on young people’s mental health.
Here is the link to Into Creative’s Just Giving page which is raising funds for the charity… JUST GIVING – TINY CHANGES
Please also visit the Bandcamp page where you will find the FREE download links to the songs… INTER-CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS BANDCAMP
