In case you missed it in the flurry of premature (that’s right) album-of-the-year lists back in November, Austra bounced back from a five-year hiatus and what sounds like a true bummer of a curdled relationship with a euphoric album of aughts-era dance music titled Chin Up Buttercup. With her North American tour dates in support of the record kicking off tonight in her native Ontario, Katie Stelmanis is teasing the run of shows with a new short film inspired by the record.
The seven-minute Chin Up Buttercup: The Movie is something of a run-through of the album’s sounds and themes, with snippets of opener “Amnesia” and the title track giving way to a live acoustic version of “The Hopefulness of Dawn” before exploding into the cathartic back half of the album version. “I had planned to make a video of some sort using BTS footage, and with the help of director/editor Hedia Maron, the idea spiraled into a wild, no-budget movie-making adventure,” Stelmanis shared of the clip, which is full of despair and inspiration—the latter of which coming from a bowling alley screen, among other sources.
Check out the short film below, and find the full list of tour dates (including Europe and the UK) here.
