VIDEO PREMIERE | Giant Cats!, "Knock on Koffins"

Introducing Giant Cats! — aka Matt Williams; press photo courtesy of the artist.

The obsessive trend phenomenon of the moment has been increasingly centered around ghosts, everything from cartoonish depictions to the more serious and academic humanities surveys of comparative paranormal studies (and the like). This fixation on apparitions is not unlike what skulls were during the oughts, and similarily is a spectacle ripped from Venn diagram representations of life and death and beyond. Partaking from these mortality cycles and styles with a DIY pop and hop jangle bop is Southern California's Giant Cats! — the solo moniker of musician and jeweler Matt Williams. Having recently released the single "Knock on Koffins" via Glasgow imprint In Black Records, we present the debut of a stop-action animated adventure courtesy of visuals from DDLT.

"Knock on Koffins" is made from the earnest and vulnerable speedy dorm room luster that defined the blogwave aesthetic of the early 2010s. The track dabbles in the trains of thought that steer down dark corners, inspired by our current era of grappling with the life as we once knew it-altering events surrounding the pandemic. With super charged bike pedal revved rhythm chords, fatalistic notions become dispelled in the drive to acquire that proverbial new lease on life. The preoccupations with mortality are countered with the track's sincere and hopeful harmonies that skip quickly with a prosody that is both anxious and excited for what floral new blooms of possibility and prosperity await with the arrival of a new day. The DDLT video presents a Clokey Productions-esque odyssey surrounding a Claymation avatar of Williams that goes on a curious midnight walk to the graveyard, trailed by inquiring and curious ghosts. After enacting the titular act of knocking on a coffin, an entity from the crypt flips the bird as our protagonist becomes transformed into a literal giant cat. From falling into a wild dawn of weirdness and wildflowers; the alarm clock rings to signal that it was all but a strange dream set to a catchy tune.

Oceanic interludes with Giant Cats!; press photo courtesy of the artist.

Matt Williams of Giant Cats! provided us with the following reflections on the single and visual:

I was originally inspired by a horror movie I saw a couple years ago that said the phrase, don’t go knocking on coffins and it really spoke to me in a spiritual level. This song means to me that life is worth living and you shouldn’t be trying to find a way out. The lyrics are kinda depressing as I did write this during the whole pandemic and every day seemed to blend together. I hope this is a jam for everyone to dance too and I cannot wait to play this live soon enough. The director (DDLT) and maker of this video is very talented and I couldn’t have found a better person to do it with.

“Knock on Koffins” from Giant Cats! is available now via In Black Records.