Chad VanGaalen - Red Hot Drops

What this video is

Released in 2006 alongside the Skelliconnection album on Sub Pop and Flemish Eye, 'Red Hot Drops' exemplifies the mid-2000s flowering of artist-as-total-auteur video practice, enabled by cheap digital capture and early internet distribution. VanGaalen's hand-animated videos occupy a rare space: simultaneously lo-fi home art objects and internationally distributed promotional materials through Sub Pop's reach. The…

Why it matters

A landmark example of the musician-as-animator tradition in indie music video history. VanGaalen's 'Red Hot Drops' represents the purest form of integrated audio-visual DIY auteurism: one artist conceiving, recording, illustrating, and animating every element. It anticipates later celebrated…

The director

Chad VanGaalen (born 1977) is a Canadian musician, animator, and artist from Calgary, Alberta. A multi-instrumentalist and self-contained creative, he releases music on Sub Pop Records and Flemish Eye. He is an illustrator and animator who creates his own…