the music videos for Vespertine

After I’d done me album, I wrote my manifesto where I describe the character who did vespertine and it’s a fictional character. I sent the same manifesto to all three video directors.

Also what was common with all three was that for all three it was their first music video, even though they had a lot of experience in another field. And I think probably I was very collaborative with all three.

Vespertine is an album made by a character who’s very introvert. And it’s about the universe inside every person. This time around, I wanted to make sure that the scenery of the songs is not like a mountain or a city or outside, it’s inside, so it’s very internal.

So I guess all three videos are very internal. They’re about sewing things in your skin, or things that were yours first, like the bodily fluids, going in and outside you. Sort of how you communicate with the world in a very intimate, personal way. Or where something outside affects you so hard that you fall in love and things grow out of you. So, yeah, I think there was a certain theme in the three videos.

Japanese Press Conference, december 2001