Private Project

Kishi Bashi - Violin Tsunami

This animated, hand-painted watercolor video for Kishi Bashi’s “Violin Tsunami” is an artistic depiction of the importance of learning from the past to make a better future. The album “Omoiyari” is a reflection on the current political atmosphere in the U.S. through the lens of the Japanese-American interment of WWII.

  • Julia McCoy
    Director
  • Mike McCoy
    Director
  • Ben Strickland
    Assistant Animator
  • Mike McCoy
    Animator
  • Julia McCoy
    Designer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Music Video, Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 11, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Julia McCoy, Mike McCoy

Mike and Julia McCoy are a husband and wife film-making team living in Seattle WA. They both work fulltime for their creative studio, Tandem Media. Mike and Julia are both passionate about storytelling and love finding interesting ways to engage their audience. An amazing thing about stories is that they can be told through so many different mediums. Through their creative studio they are able to explore those mediums with animation, live-action, motion design, and music to bring stories to life.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

When we were first contacted by Kishi Bashi to make a music video, we were thrilled. We have been long-time fans of Kishi Bashi and Tall Tall Trees and have a special connection to their music. Our first date was going to a Kishi Bashi concert (we broke up afterwards, but made our way back together haha) and major milestone in our lives have seemed to link up unintentionally with the releasing of Kishi Bashi’s albums. Omoiyari is a unique and beautiful album that perfectly honors those who have suffered in the past to shine a light into our current political climate in order for us all to make a change for the future. Violin Tsunami is such a moving piece of music. It was easy to gain inspiration to create visuals that tie in with the themes of the album. Both of us were surprised by our lack of knowledge about the Japanese-American interment. Studying this period of time was a similar experience, we supposed, to exploring a shipwreck; something that has sunk below the surface although still present in the waters. This was a difficult project to work on as we recreated the visuals of the horrific conditions our fellow-Americans were kept in based solely on ignorance and fear. To create a piece that memorializes this time in history was such an honor for us and one that we will be forever grateful for.