Old Man Canyon’s song “What’s Even Real Anymore” is a song about reality and what we assume to be reality and its music video inspired by a supposed UFO sighting is a perfect visual presentation of the song. It combines computer animation with footage of actual people and a natural landscape near Kamloops, BC in the desert hills of Cache Creek. In the beginning we see two people staring into the sky from a gas covered hill when one of them is abducted by an alien or is it? The next scene is of the band’s vocalist sitting in one of those claw machines where you can, if you’re skilled and fortunate enough, retrieve a tchotchke for paying some coin for the opportunity to guide that claw into a pit of of toys, trinkets or other items. The song itself is a lush, minimal downtempo dream pop sort of affair with a cascading keyboard arpeggio and low key bass line under introspective and hazy vocals. The images switch between real imagery and those clearly animated. Even without the benefit of the visuals of the video the song shifts between heartfelt emotion and dissociative thoughts that can descend into your brain when you’re feeling overwhelmed and recovering from overstimulation and burnout. And there’s something soothing about that dynamic that in the end when we see our protagonist being abducted it might even seem like a desirable possibility to escape from our current struggles even if that means being taken away by a mysterious civilization of which we have no knowledge or frame of references. But who that has lived in this era of late capitalism hasn’t felt this stirring in the imagination? Watch the video for “What’s Even Real Anymore” on YouTube and connect with Old Man Canyon at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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