Austra Shares Short Film “The Shape of You I Know Completely” About The Thoughts Behind Their Most Recent Record HiRUDiN, Calls The Album “A Breakup Record”

Canadian band Austra shared a short film entitled “The Shape Of You I Know Completely” regarding their most recent record called hiRUDiN. The film covers the thoughts about the record and how the group calls the album “a breakup record.”

The short film opens with the band’s founder Katie Stelmanis with red hair, a black coat with green stripes and red tights sitting on a log. She snaps her fingers and begins describing what hirudin is. Hirudin is a leech commonly called hirudinea and is used for medicinal purposes in addition to being a pest that feeds on human blood. Stelmanis explains her fascination with leeches and gives a brief insight about the facts of hirudinea. She explains she called the album hiRUDiN because it is about toxic relationships and leeches felt like the perfect metapbor.

Several things throughout the video having to do with leeches are shown such as blood sucking, decaying rotting skin, and leeches crawling around. Stelmanis explains about toxic relationships describing specifically what they are and how we love to be in them but also hate to be in them. She also explains that while she was writing about the toxic relationships she’d been through she realized that removing toxic relationships from her life was liberating. She also said for the first time she worked with outside producers and she was scared but she overcame her fears.

The video premiered on December 10, 2020. The album features song entitled “I Am Not Waiting” which features a video where Stelmanis runs through empty streets.

photo credit: Sharon Alagna