Swift, As One Designed for Flying OFFICIAL video from Wendy McNeill's First There Were Feathers
Swifts (Apus Apus) are amazing birds that spend 10 months of the year in the air- never landing. They eat, drink, mate and even sleep on the wing. My hope with this song is to share a lot of interesting facts about Swifts while blending it with a dreamy, floating soundscape and multitrack vocals that match the tone I feel when I see them.
For the video, I wanted to represent the freedom of Swifts with a human archetype - so I thought who is more free and roaming than musicians and circus performers? I asked some of the musicians that played on the track to come and invited some circus artists to add to the magic. I scripted the shots to be long and meandering like the voyage of a Swift. There are only a few edits in the whole video which is over 6 minutes long. We never actually see a Swift in the video, but we hear them at the end. We shot all the scenes in chronological order in one afternoon hoping to get through them in time to catch the sunset, and we just made it. Shot by Alissa Wyle of HolySmokePhotography and Jose Manuel Pedrajas. Edited by Alissa Wyle.
LYRICS:
SWIFT, AS ONE DESIGNED FOR FLYING
so much of us you can’t understand
even if you held us in your hand
a monomorphic anomaly
shades of black and brown is all you’d see
yes, your vision is poor and your heart is slow you're featherless- yet you think you know
what freedom is- so on you go only yours- the tale worth telling
while I live on the wing and die on the wing
as one designed for flying to eat on the wing
to sleep on the wing
and while I sleep-
I’m dreaming
of parties where we feasted well
above deltas, lakes and through tails of storms
much higher than the martins go
2000 strong- we soared and dove
to play on the wing
to mate on the wing
as ones designed for flying
we drop our feathers one by one
a slow renewal is preferred by some
a full moult would leave us too undone
even we- those nearest to the sun
we pair for life- this you may know
but once we raise our young we go
our separate ways- subsaharan days
10 months of 12 are travelling
to live on the wing
to thrive on the wing
as ones designed for flying to drink on the wing
to sleep on the wing
and while I sleep-
I’m dreaming
a unihemispheric sleep
fuelled by light and acetylcholine
a slow wave stream of things I’ve seen and all the things worth having
I’ve lived longer now than most
I’m growing tired but I can boast
if all the miles were added up
I’d have been 6 times to the moon and back
I’ve lived on the wing
I’ll die on the wing
as one designed for flying I sing on the wing
I dream on the wing
and while I dream
I’m flying...
#swift #circus #wendymcneill #firsttherewerefeathers #bringingtheartstolife