Tulipomania: Never Knew

Never Knew is the fourth animated music video supporting their album titled Absolution, inspired by an invitation from acclaimed author Jeff VanderMeer to contribute music as part of the publication of Absolution, the surprise fourth volume in his award-winning Southern Reach series out now in paperback.

Secrecy, trust and betrayal drive the elusive musings voiced in “Never Knew,” perfectly placing it within Tulipomania’s album soundscape resonating with the complex energies enveloping Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Absolution.

Sharing themes of existential dread with VanderMeer’s novel, equally unafraid to excavate the darkest of human impulses when confronted with the unknown “Never Knew” presents partial glimpses of a fractured narrative, questioning the possibility of piecing together a complete truth.

Mirroring the process of influencing/being influenced – the text of the novel was mined, then mutated, distorted and transformed to create something new.

Animation techniques involved the assembly of collaged imagery directly on highlighted, erased and often torn pages of the novel, shot in frame by frame stop-motion.
Multiple copies of the novel were purchased then destroyed in the process of creating the animation.

  • Cheryl Gelover
    Director
  • Tom Murray
    Director
  • Tulipomania
    Music
  • Cheryl Gelover
    Animation
  • Tom Murray
    Animation
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 32 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Cheryl Gelover, Tom Murray

Tulipomania has alternately been categorized as ‘cult synth punks,' ‘glam-leaning,' ‘postpunk,' ‘art-rock' and ‘muscular chamber pop.'

While band members Tom Murray (lead vocals, bass,
percussion) and Cheryl Gelover (synthesizer, background vocals) enjoy deciphering efforts to categorize their sound, they decline to offer a specific label of their own.

The two first met in Art school, and found themselves collaborating on projects for Experimental Film and Animation classes –Tulipomania grew along with those experiences.

Described as “artistic and inventive” and “gorgeous,” music videos created by Tulipomania have been featured in film festivals worldwide, including the London Short Film Festival (England), Leeds International Film Festival (England), Aesthetica Short Film Festival (York, England), Encounters (Bristol,England), Zubroffka (Poland), AniFilm (Liberec, Czech Republic), StopTrik (Croatia, Poland). Cinequest (USA), Chicago Underground Film Festival (USA), and Tallgrass Film Festival (Kansas, USA). A complete list of festival screenings is available on request.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Tom Murray explains – “This animation was a total immersion into the unusual process of reciprocal influence we found ourselves participating in with Jeff VanderMeer. It’s enormously flattering to have another artist cite your work as an inspiration – and then, surprisingly generous to have them reach out and offer a chance to respond to their work.

We never would have expected anyone to take such a deep dive into articulating how our music affected their creative process – Jeff’s liner notes are such a fantastic response to our album Absolution – we were honored he asked us to keep the dialogue going and sent us early drafts of the novel Absolution.

Animation is so time consuming – it had better be a labor of love – you’re building a mood by creating 24 images for each second of screen time. We decided to start with the physical novel …

We took visual cues from Jeff, who previewed Absolution’s release by sharing images of the novel in various states of destruction. His followers could see the book submerged in laboratory jars filled with liquid like a specimen, washed up on a beach, burnt to cinders or torn to shreds. Every time there was a new post you’d wonder how the book would be destroyed…”

Cheryl Gelover shares – “We ended up purchasing many copies of Absolution and we weren’t bothered when one arrived with a really bent up front cover – because we knew we’d be inflicting much worse damage to it!

We tore the books up completely searching for the lyrics to “Never Knew.” We also highlighted them in Day-Glo yellow, orange and pink, taped sequential images directly over the text and cut shapes into layers of the pages as we created collages to set in motion.

Strangely, all the while we were animating, the text itself was still enticing… I’d get lost in fragments of the narrative…

I want to say we just loved Absolution to death – except, just like the most disturbing scenes of the book, it didn’t really die – it was transformed into something else entirely.”