There’s a bespoke feeling to “Shadows,” the new video from Sonny and the Sunsets’ new album Self Awareness Through Macrame. There’s a reason for that — namely, that the video consists of a series of 180 paintings by the band’s Sonny Smith. The whole record abounds with bittersweet and understated pop numbers, indicative of Smith’s impressive discography. As Jennifer Kelly wrote at Dusted, “He’s a master of twisting realism into gentle fantasy, so that it’s hard to say where the grit leaves off and the fairy dust starts.” I spoke with Smith about the process of making the video — and that interview, along with a closer look at some of his paintings, follows.
Morning Bites: Ismail Kadare’s Fiction, Geoff Dyer on Virginia Woolf, Vi Khi Nao’s Writings, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on books by Ismail Kadare and vi Khi Nao, writing by Geoff Dyer, and more.