Music video premiere: The Chapin Sisters’ fantastical fairy tale, “Autumn”

Sisters Lily and Abigail Chapin are the voices you hear harmonizing so hauntingly on all Chapin Sisters tracks. Their beautifully blended voices, and signature ethereal sound have often been compared to sister acts of yore, but take one look at their new video for “Autumn” and there’s no question that this duo is decidedly modern.

The video takes a trippy walk through the seasons — animals play instruments, 3D animation fills in the experimental background canvas, all while Abigail and Lily sing in perfect harmony. The video, directed by Alec Coiro, takes inspiration from some of our favorite children’s books: The Wind in the Willows, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  — which in itself becomes beautifully harmonious when put into context with the fact that Abigail and Lily were both pregnant while the video was shot.

“With new babies on the way, we were thinking a lot about fairy tales and folk tales. Alec invented delightful whimsical characters which played right into that theme, inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales and The Wind in the Willows,” Lily explained to HelloGiggles.

Abigail spoke a little more in-depth about where the song and video fit within the arc of their new album Today’s Not Yesterday. “The structure of the song is cyclical, with each verse about a different season, and Alec reflected that in the video by creating a landscape set outside of time where digital and natural elements merge in sometimes harmonious and sometimes distinct ways,” Abigail told HelloGiggles. “The tropes of the children’s fable intersect with collage elements that are handmade but also not trying to hide their digital origin. Thus creating a tension of past and present, as is reflected in much of the material on our new album, Today’s Not Yesterday.”

“The idea was to make a world from scratch that was as handmade as possible. Most of the trees, for example, I made out of construction paper first before metaphorically ‘scanning’ them into the computer,” Alec said in a statement, revealing a bit more how the video was put together.

The Chapin Sisters are no stranger to experimentation. “Autumn” is off their new album Today’s Not Yesterday, which is the follow-up to their 2013 album A Date with the Everly Brothers, which was a full Everly Brothers cover album. Swoon.

The gals also opened for She & Him (shoutout to our lady Zooey D.). It’s pretty safe to say, these sisters are absolute musical inspiration, and “Autumn” is just the kind of beautifully haunting new vid we needed in our lives.

You can order (or download) The Chapin Sisters new album here.