Amanda Palmer: Soldiering — mothers of this nation have a different agenda
Amanda Palmer; an artist of immense creativity, spirit, and emotion, has just released a new powerful video for her rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Mother”. Palmer who is independently crowdfunded by her 11,000 subscribers on patreon.com, leads by example in this bold piece of art which is, in her words, “dedicated to the current administration.”
As the official press release states: Shooting on location in upstate New York at the iconic sculpture park, Opus 40, Palmer collaborated with a female director (Jordan Rathus) and choreographer (Coco Karol), in addition to an all-female string quartet and two of her fellow mother-musicians (Zoë Keating and Melissa Auf der Maur, ex-bassist of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins).
Palmer’s idea for the video inspired the recording for the song, and she tapped long-time friend/composer Jherek Bischoff (Strung Out in Heaven, Purple Rain) to join her vision and supply a bittersweet and poignant string quartet arrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Mother”. Zoë Keating stood in for David Gilmour’s searing guitar solo on cello.
From her days as Cambridge’s eight-foot bride, to fronting the Dresden Dolls, to being a best-selling author, Palmer has continuously driven off a point of — the value of connection. Her courage and openness inspire both her dedicated fan base (more like a community) and other artists to put one foot in front of the other, and stand proud. “Mother” is Palmer’s latest representation that comes from a deep perspective, being a mother herself to a now two-year-old son.
Here, Palmer dives into the motivation behind her craft, while embodying one of the most special words on the planet.
Amanda Palmer:
“The lyrics to ‘Mother’ haunted me during the inauguration. There’s a surge in female power right now: Trump and co. can prattle on about how they’re going to build a big, beautiful wall, but the mothers of this nation have a different agenda. We don’t want our children to grow up in a world of fear, separation, and scarcity.
I’ve made over a dozen big-production videos with massive casts and crews, but I’ve never felt this way on a set before. Ever since having a baby I’ve been continuing to work on producing content, and I often bring my baby to recording studios and video sets where it is cheerfully tolerated. But this time it wasn’t just tolerated, it was celebrated.
Everybody on the set — from the film crew to the dancers — stood by the spirit of the script. All of the children cast are children of friends of mine. Chris Wells, who plays “The President”, is an openly gay actor and peace activist and it meant a lot to me to be able to cast him in this role.
“That finale-scene could not have happened if it weren’t for our deep respect for one another; I couldn’t have done it with just any actor and it took a massive amount of trust. Melissa Auf der Maur and Zoë Keating have both been my guiding lights as fellow mothers and musicians. This video is as much an homage to them as it is a statement about the current administration.”
Watch:
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