Based out of Oakland, CA, artist and musician Derek Barber records music under the name Perhapsy. He’s contributed to a variety of Bay Area acts, including Bells Atlas, Salami Rose Joe Louis’ live band, Curls (Christopher Owens of Girls), Madeline Kenney, Astronauts and more. His fourth album as Perhapsy, titled A Carpenter’s Market, will be released on March 5. Today we’re premiering the new video for one of the tracks from that album, “Lake Erie (Whispering).”
Barber has a background in illustration but recently took up animation over the last year, leading to him self-animating the video for “Lake Erie (Whispering).” The song tells a story about the singer being lost on a beach and the otherwordly animation aligns perfectly with those themes, waves crashing . The song is deftly-executed mid-fi indie rock, with a slightly jangly guitar figure marked by hypnotic hammer-on accents and Barber’s unaffected, plainspoken vocal delivery. The song continues its narrative, bringing in a holy ghost that alerts the narrator’s mother to his imminent danger, swelling to a Polvo-like crescendo in the chorus.
“The song is basically about this strange memory I had of vacationing on Lake Erie in Ohio with my family when I was really young,” said Barber. “Somehow, I got left accidentally on the beach with no way of getting back to the cottage where my family always stayed. Apparently, my mom, who wasn’t initially on the beach, had felt some “spiritual” or otherwise presence letting her know I was lost. This was all before anyone knew or told her I’d been missing. Eventually, some nice person helped me get back home. Because I was so young, it’s hard to know how accurate this memory really is, based on the other-worldliness of it. It still feels much more like a dream. Which got me thinking, what else in my life experience is like this memory? I wanted the animation to reflect those feelings: hence the bug-creatures, spirit-world guitars, and dreamy faux-religious stuff in it. There’s also a little shout-out to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio at the end — the world’s greatest roller coaster park.”
A Carpenter’s Market track list
1. Center of My Eye
2. For Gretchen
3. Lake Erie (Whispering)
4. Dew
5. Caroline M.
6. Wes Borland
7. It Was Light
8. Clayface
9. TWJR
10. West Oakland
11. 19th St
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