Radical Face, AKA Ben Cooper, will release The Family Tree: The Leaves next week, the third and final instalment in his Family Tree series which has documented the lives of a fictional family spanning over a century (The Roots was released in 2011 and The Branches in 2013). To whet your appetite we have a first look at the video for ‘Secrets (Cellar Door)’ right here, and we’re going to let Ben explain where it fits in to the story.
“This track covers two characters in the family tree that, by chance, became neighbours at age ten. The narrator is a young girl from the family line of Abigail, from ‘The Dead Waltz’, and she discovered at a young age that she could bring animals back from the dead. She never had friends and was always the “odd girl” until moving next door to Kyle. She eventually decides to share her secret with him after the neighborhood mutt dies. She brings him back to life in her secret hiding place, then shows Kyle. She fears rejection, but to her surprise, he isn’t upset by it at all.
“Kyle’s father is the narrator of the song ‘The Crooked Kind’, and his grandfather is the narrator of the song ‘Kin’. Like the rest of his family line, he can hear his dead relatives all around the house he lives in. But Kyle’s mutation has gone a step further and he can see them, and if holding someone’s hand, they can see them as well. So this track is about them sharing their secrets, that they both interact with the dead.”
Got all of that? Now hit play…
Radical Face will play three London shows at The Forge on April 26-28 as part of his 15-date European tour.