Off the Lane: A dark fairytale

No shortcut is safe. The whole song is a metaphor and a warning...
Off the lane is the story of a girl wandering through the forest. She left the safe path misled by the Underliving creatures, or maybe not by them but her own unleashed imagination and broken spirit that enthralled by the twisted shapes of the branches seeks for shelter and get lost in the dark woods never to be found again.
No mossy stone will be her grave.
Has she become a ghost? or maybe a shadow?

The second way to understand is to understand what may happen if we step out from our own path... shortcuts are dangerous... specially when they lead you to dark forests (if you guess what I mean)

A warning for a curious girl led stray... you should have gone through the long way

Filming locations and making of

As usual the music video was done by ourselves, meaning me and @hedac.The song belongs to The Underliving illustrated music book but in my previous CD Ancient Shadows: The ghost and the Fairy I had already portrayed the ghost lady with a garment very similar to the one I'm wearing in this video.

A part of it was filmed in Navarra in the abandoned XVI century factory of Eugi... now engulfed by Nature. You can check a post about this place with many pictures here:

• The ruins of Eugi. One with Nature (Overgrowth) Abandoned places series

Above: picture taken during the filming of the video, included in the in depth article of the location listed above

Another location was another forest in Navarra that sadly had been consumed by a wild fire. Hector filmed some scenes of the naked trees, the we used some puppet animation effect to animate . There is something so otherwordly about burnt forests... as if they are ghosts forests. So we mixed footage of El Quinto Real forest (where Eugi is) and this other burnt grove.

Above: the singular burnt tree that appears in the video. Mysterious at night... *where the woodlands get dark

A final location was Catalonia´s Montseny Forest during winter... As there is a transition of time from autumnal tones into cold wintry snow.

Some curious things that happened during the filming

It was indeed super fun. My costume is inspired in the drawing I made myself as the Ghost in my first album. It was designed by Bibian Blue upon my specifications and might be my best garment up to this day. The lush velvet cloak was a gift made during a concert by Goblin Road. I wear the same clothing during the whole video but in some parts I wear a rather haggard, already dead kind of make up. And I have dark ink in my mouth. Black ink was used all over the video to do FX, we dropped ink in water and filmed how it would shape, sometimes it would create odd "creature-likes" black formations, then the ink t was superimposed in the skies to make them look eerie and also as following shadows. At one moment of the video I go underwater with ink in my mouth... and yes it was real ink, and I couldn't really close my nostrils and it was terrible when that ink went all over the wrong way... LOL. One take and only.

How I became a real ghost (blooper) A funny not so funny ghost story during the filming

When we went to film to Montseny for the second time (snow gone already) we drove very early, in the middle of the night, complete pitch black, we were expecting to grasp the beautiful first light of dawn. But we were up to early and we started to make jokes, of course it's a forest road, no traffic, none but us, who could be up there on a cold day at 3 in the night in a place far from any populated area? Noone... So we started joking, Hector would drive back and I would be there in the road with my rococo dress and zombie make up with my head facing the floor, and I would attack the car when seeing the lights... All staged... just for fun, to film some bloopers...
So Hector said... Pris why don't I go further, so we film from complete darkness until you are lit by the car

I felt the light approaching... I made my best performance, jerked my neck sideways and lifted my head in a really disturbing way and faced the vehicle approaching without moving from the road...

It was NOT Héctor. It was a bus driver, that skipped me and started to accelerate...
And there I was (alive, thanks god) and probably having scared someone...

Weeks after a local TV program about "supernatural" had some exclusive testimonies about a dead girl (the curve girl creepy pasta story) in that area... I thought if was sensible not to call the show line.
So yes, I became a ghost, not only in the script of my video... I had always told my friends privately and I think this is the first time (it was years ago) I share this funny (not so funny it was risky and unpredictable) little ghost story.

A concept art watercolour painting I made for the Dark Forest

As The Underliving was also a booklet of illustrations I made this drawing of a spooky gnarled forest to portray this song. It is a traditional illustration just made with ink and watercolours.

Where the woodlands get dark skeleton hands hang from bare and twisted branches

This song is included in that album and if you consider to support my music , that is one the best ways for me because I' am still proud of that releasem so personal to me. You can find it here:

http://theunderliving.com

OFF THE LANE Lyrics

A warning for a curious girl...
I got lost off the lane
Where the woodlands get dark
And skeleton hands
Hang from bare and twisted branches
Swaying in a sinister dance
They swirl, they swirl
Knotting their shadows over me spiraling
Call me! Call me from the Dark!
Oh I shall find no rest until you come!
Call me! Call me by my name!
That mossy stone
Shall never be my grave!
I just followed their trail
Into their hidden lair
Oh broken heart
Come and play with us -they said
We can gather all your shards -they sung
Join them so you can feel complete
A whole again
All you must do is to decline
The light of sun
Oh catch me! catch me now!
Don't let me fall
Into a world I'll never be
I never really was
Tangle me and lift me in your arms
Shelter me and cloak me
With your gnarled dead boughs
Now that I'm lost
Off the lane
A warning for all curious girls
Led astray
A warning for all curious girls
Led astray
I should have gone through the long way
You should have gone through the long way
No shortcut is safe

Credits of the music

Music, lyrics, piano, voice, arrangements by Priscilla Hernandez @yidneth
Electronic loops and percussion, mixing and mastering by @hedac
Cello by Svetlana Tovstukha
Waterphone samples with permission of Richard Waters

Two songs that are opposites: Off the Lane and Through the Long way

Both songs have motifs and they call each other...
In Off the lane it says "You should have gone through the long way" in "Through the Long Way" the lyrics say "The greatest truth: No shortcut is safe. So in many ways, the songs play as two opposites tales... to remind us that sometimes taking the shortest route is not the safest... sometimes we have to walk our own path, at our own pace... as an artist I have remained honest to this principle.

Go through the Long Way... No shortcuts are safe

So you can actually listen to "Through the Longway" on Dsound too and see how both songs interconnect.
► Listen on DSound
► Listen from source (IPFS)
Link to "Through the Long way" Steemit post

A funny little alternate cover

As anecdote and as a funny note, at the time I filmed this video, @hedac and I had a hamster called Totonika... oh my! She was a rodent SUPERSTAR :) several of her photos went viral and remain in countless memes today... She was a professional model and we still keep her memory page . You may know I love rodents, particularly rats, though Totonika was a syrian hamster. She even has her own lullaby that I will share some other day. But he is Totonika as alternate cover for Off the Lane.

(c) Priscilla Hernandez. All Rights Reserved. yidneth.com

And I hope you like it, as always, if you do, leave your feedback and show your love! Thank you!!