Americana Highways is hosting this video premiere of Forest Sun’s song “A Million.” “A Million” is Forest Sun on acoustic guitar, vocals, whistling, and hand claps; Gawain Mathews on bass, banjo, vocals, drums, and tambourine. The song was produced by Forest Sun and Gawain Mathews; engineered by Gawain Mathews and mastered by Justin Weis.
The video was directed and edited with cinematography and animation by Conner Murphy, with production and camerawork by Forest Sun and additional camerawork by Kristen Carranza.
In a song about moving to the city inspired by country living, Forest Sun dances with the American Dream, and you’ll dance along with him. It’s a perfect song for whistles and handclaps.
Gonna move into the city. That’s what I’m gonna do. Gonna make a million dollars and give it all to you’ goes the first verse of “A Million.” Everybody knows someone moving to the city. I wanted to capture that wide starry eyed optimism of actors, musicians, and entrepreneurs flocking to the proverbial city to chase their hopes and dreams.
The video was created during lockdown and I wanted to see what we could make without leaving our houses with footage we had already filmed.
In Mill Valley where I live now everybody refers to San Francisco as “the city”. That casual lower case familiarity that only proximity brings. That phrase “The city” always sounds so deeply iconic and mythological to me. The city is the place you go to make your fortune and chase your hopes and dreams. Could be any city. We chose San Francisco. The video starts passing under the rainbow painted above the Robin Williams Tunnel and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Two great icons of the Bay Area. Bridges and tunnels are great metaphors.
I used to live at the top of the Vallejo steps in North Beach in San Francisco. We shot this walking around my old neighborhood and into China Town, and also filmed at Baker Beach with the Golden Gate Bridge visible in the back ground. The live concert footage is from 2019 Bay Area shows at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma, Cornerstone in Berkeley, and Felton Music Hall in Santa Cruz. — Forest Sun
Order the album here: https://forestsun.bandcamp.com/track/a-million Forest releases a new song every month with Patreon subscribers gaining access to advance previews of all new material. More info at https://www.patreon.com/forestsun