While Joe Baughman’s music may be new to the masses, his work as a video director and stop-motion animator is certainly not. Over the years, Baughman has created music videos for well-known artists including Wilco, Julien Baker, and The Roots among many others. All the while, continuing to work on his personal sonic creations as well. Antichrist Complex marks Baughman’s first serious go at releasing and promoting his own recorded work after being a part of that process for many other artists.
On the latest single “Vacant Spaces”, Baughman presents a thoughtful and complex arrangement that truly lives up to the term “freak folk”. The recording is raw, beautiful, and cacophonous all at once, seemingly drawing as much from Animal Collective as Fleet Foxes, and is set to a visually stunning self-directed music video. The latest album Antichrist Complex is out now.
Speaking further about the video Joe Baughman writes, “When I started making this video, I didn’t expect it to take 3 years to finish, but I found myself spending more and more time on every detail, trying new techniques and adding more depth. I had been making music videos for other bands for nearly a decade, so I wanted to make my first video for my own band something extra special. I spent many lonely hours sculpting, carving, Mod Podge-ing, hot gluing, painting, animating, and editing. Like most stop-motion animation, this project was difficult, tedious, and exhausting, but I enjoyed the challenge and am excited for how it has turned out . It was definitely weird listening to my own song over and over (and weirder still working with a little version of myself), but by the end I grew to love it in the same way I have grown fond of every song I’ve created music videos for.”
