RED SCARVES – “DIVINE LINE”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE
Chicago quartet Red Scarves began nearly a decade ago thanks to a college course on Bob Dylan. Now in the big city with a solidified lineup consisting of Braden Poole (vocals, guitar), Ayethaw Tun (vocals, guitar, bass), Ryan Donlin (vocals, bass, guitar, keys), and Robby Kuntz (drums, percussion, keys), the band is truly a team effort with each member contributing to the songwriting and singing.
Red Scarves writes music that is at the intersection of their music theory studies in undergrad and the 60s/70s pop-rock that first got them together in the first place. With a foot in folk and another in indie-pop, the band recently released their EP Ghost Hunter and will be releasing their next full-length, Nice Try, in 2023. They both recorded on tape with Dave Vettraino (Dehd, Lala Lala) during the pandemic
Braden Poole wrote “Divine Line” after moving to Chicago and making his way through the city. His experience moving from a small town to the big city and then running into a man dressed as Jesus — complete with an 8 foot cross — sparked the song. Like their songwriting, the music video is a team effort as well with Braden sharing the initial vision and capturing some footage on his childhood camera from nearly 20 years ago. Fellow bandmember Ayethaw Tun and the band’s friend Kaity Szymborski (member of Chicago band Beauty Saloon) filmed and directed the video, with Tun also editing it.
ARTIST QUOTE
From songwriter Braden Poole:
“I wrote Divine Line one year after moving to Chicago in 2016. At that time I was still feeling like the proverbial country mouse trying to find his way through the maze of the big city. I was working at a cafe downtown, and on my way to open the store at 4am, I ran into a man dressed as Jesus of Nazareth – complete with an 8 foot cross dragging behind him. I started to think about going up and talking to him, but decided I didn’t have enough caffeine in my system.”
From band member and the video’s co-director and editor, Ayethaw Tun:
“Braden had a vision of capturing the vastness of the city and being lost and small amongst a crowd/buildings/CTA stops/etc. He showed me a montage from Good Will Hunting, which really captured the feeling of being one person in a small city while driving around/on the train. We filmed it ourselves with good friend/collaborator Kaity Szymborkski. She plays bass in the great Chicago band, Beauty Saloon. Neither of us are experts by any means, but she helped me come up with shot ideas and operate the camera. I wish I had access to a 16mm film or VHS camera, but the fun part of the video is Braden getting his old childhood digital camera from the early 2000s. The camera’s lens is rather messed up which led to some weird light leaks and a very poor ability to capture colors accurately. Braden filmed all of the footage with that camera and it definitely pulls it all together for the music video. He really wanted the video to match ‘the world; that the song created and I think we got there in the end.”
Red Scarves
Ghost Hunter
(Independent)
Release Date: October 2022
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