A stunning video of the day today from Canada’s Sarah Jickling: Villian. The song is an instantly engaging triphoppy journey, and the beautifully animated video needs a deep breath and a cup of tea before watching. (Seriously, content warning for childhood trauma and mental illness.)

‘Villian’ is from Sarah Jickling’s new album The Family Curse, which explores mental illness within families and intergenerational trauma, and documents her childhood experiences and revelations about her family’s history of bipolar disorder. ‘Villian’ taps into a particularly destructive time in Sarah’s life.

“There was a period in my life where I felt like I was watching myself from far away, totally out of control,” says Sarah. “Depression and anger had turned me into someone I didn’t recognize, and I remember thinking over and over, ‘this time I’m the villain.’ I had a habit of smashing all of the dishes in my house, so for this song we used samples of actual plates smashing as percussion. I worked on this song with Laura Smith (Rococode), Carol Lynne Quinn (High Love) and Greg McLeod, and they all pushed me to go places that were scary and uncomfortable at first but ultimately powerful.”  

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