Vaarwell - Quarter Life Crisis - EP Campaign

Ahead of London-based electro-pop duo Vaarwell’s upcoming EP Quarter Life Crisis, they have produced a series of music videos to capture the themes, emotions and mindscapes that power their ethereal and atmospheric music.

In W/U, a couple sit in a car transfixed by the actions of a pair of doppelgangers representing their ideal selves in each other’s eyes. In DLAM (Don’t Look At Me) the duo transverse a city late at night with their faces obscured by blurring lights. Finally in Sellout, the pair are frozen in place at a busy and vibrant fairground, ignorant of the enjoyment and excitement around them as they consider the burden of life’s responsibilities.

Vaarwell’s music videos/visualizers are interlinked by shared ingredients such as blurring and hypnotising lighting effects, introspective examinations of growth and adulthood (matching the EP’s subject – a ‘quarter life crisis’) and through its focus on the band as unwitting actors in a rapidly shifting world. The ultimate aim of the videos is to match the song they accompany thematically and amplify the band’s music. The setting of a city at night accomplishes this brilliantly, giving director Taha Ismail a canvas to create wonderous and airy imagery that viewers will find a treat.

W/U is the highlight of the trio – presenting a discomforting mini plot about a couple viewing each other’s personas from the backseat of a car. The unreachable standards the pair hold each other too are highlighted, and the message that our true selves taking a back seat to the personas we create can result in difficulties communicating is impressively portrayed through the video. DLAM is more of a lucid experience, without an obvious storyline beyond the pair taking a trip through a city. The director’s concealing of the artists’ faces throughout the video creates an air of mystery, as well as a theme that people lose who they are in the madness of everyday life. Sellout is a simple visualiser, and unfortunately there is not a lot to say about what is ultimately a repeated frame. A sense of burden and disconnect is evident in the video’s construction, but this one feels far emptier than the other productions.

This series of videos for Quarter-Life Crisis are solid and complimentary of Vaarwell’s unique and established music style. Whilst there is a limit to what they accomplish in terms of a story or plot, they do effectively match the music and create a visual experience to match the sonic one provided by the record.