Afraid To Fall Asleep was an album conceptualized based on the insomnia episodes I occasionally experienced during my teen years. While this didn’t have as large an impact on the music as initially planned (due to having so many writers involved with the lyrical components), this massively sculpted aspects of the visual direction of the project, especially my social media presence in tandem with the rollout of the album. The motif of a doubled version of myself distorted, acted as a parallel to the concept of a “sleep paralysis demon”, a common phenomenon experienced by people experiencing sleep paralysis or sleep deprivation. The artwork and social posts during this time also prodominantly featured censored eyes, which had both a practical and artistic purpose. On a practical level, it hid the fact that I simply did not know what to do with my face while taking photos, particularly my eyes, and covering them was an easy way to make the photos look less awkward. On an artistic level though it was symbolic of a loss of identity, which was thematically in line with the album’s loose narrative of how these internalized fears and aversions to sleep caused a decline in the relationships of the album’s hypothetical “protagonist” (though this was all very loose theming in practice within the music).
For artwork for the singles, there was a variety of directions taken, from botanical drawings to custom tarot cards. While all being distinctly different, there was a consistent colour palette and generally dark composition between all pieces.
For both the artwork and the video components, there was a heavy reliance on creative use of stock imagery and public domain material, mixed in with photography and videography done specifically for this project. This was largely due to a lack of resources, but in spite of that the premiere of the album featured a full 45 minutes of visuals rendered for a live premiere. These visuals often contained time synced lyrics as well as concert-esc motion graphics (leaning heavily on the CRT packs distributed by EZCO). A CRT motif was used throughout as it felt fitting as a method to convey looking backwards and remembering things. There was originally meant to be a large before and after emphasis throughout the album that was largely scrapped, but this “before” element can still be seen in a lot of the choices made for video material. Footage was shot between two cameras, a modern DSLR and a 2003 Sony Cybershot point and shoot for authentic digital grain. The footage shot in real life was intended to feel like real home videos of a relationship that had since deteriorated (a concept heavily explored in the video for Ceramic).
Afraid To Fall Asleep also recieved a short run of physical Cassettes, which can be seen here