Chris Simpson’s Mountain Time Longs For Live Music With “Empty Graves”
Chris Simpson, the former frontman of ’90’s emo band Mineral, has embarked on a new chapter of his musical career, this time taking on the name Mountain Time, inspired by his upbringing in Colorado and influenced by the timelessness of folk rock. Under the moniker, Simpson released his latest album Music For Looking Animals back in June, and now has shared the black-and-white music video for the poignant track “Empty Graves”.
Directed by Gates Bradley, the filmmaker behind the politically-charged graffiti documentary “White Walls Say Nothing“, the music video finds a perspective between realism and reality.
“Gates sent me some photographs he had been taking on his LA morning motorcycle rides that featured barren urban landscapes and clear, unpolluted skies. I loved his ideas and I love what he came up with. The images are so beautiful. When everything just screeches to a halt like that and there’s this sudden clarity and almost a heaviness, like a blanket laying over everything, keeping it quiet and still. And then the signs of life carrying on across it—the birds slowly traversing the long shots. It’s exquisite.”
Bradley’s eye for capturing the art of the world helps elevate Simpson’s songwriting, still heavily doused in his emo beginnings, singing about the comprehension of life and death. Matching the enigmatic meaning of the song, the music video is an ode to the unpredictable state of live music and our desire as humans for its eventual return, as a young accordionist searches the vacant city for an audience.
