Comparing the 2020s to previous decades, there’s more discourse about trans people than ever before. But that isn’t necessarily a win for the LGBTQ community. Trans identity has become a dog whistle for conservative who are intent on legislating other people’s existence; you’d be hard pressed to find a politician or pundit who hasn’t weighed in on the issue more than once. But a trans person talking about trans identity? You might as well look for cryptid representation in media. After all, plenty of people talk about sasquatches, but you never hear Bigfoot speak out.
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Enter Cavetown’s music video for “Cryptid,” a song from their latest album, Running With Scissors (out now on Futures Music Group, a joint venture between Neon Gold and Avenue A Records that formed in 2024). Via a sly, clever and potent allegory, the English singer-songwriter, who is trans, depicts the world of a vibrant but vilified cryptid community that finally rises up in the face of prejudice — not to attack, but simply to exist.
Directed by Eden Mili, an Australian-born director and visual artist who, like Cavetown, is currently based on New York City, the “Cryptid” clip takes us from the sewers to the streets, where we watch deer-like cryptids come into their own power.
Here, Cavetown (Robin Skinner) and Eden Mili walk Billboard through the making of the video (filmed in part at retro Brooklyn roller rink All Night Skate), its subtle references to queer history and what else influenced Running With Scissors.
Did you know each prior to making this video? How did the collaboration come about?
Eden Mili: No, the first time we met in person was the day of the shoot, which was kind of crazy. But we had obviously spoken about it before.
Cavetown: I had a basic idea for the world and storyline that I wanted to create and I needed to find someone to help fill in the gaps and make it all cohesive. As soon as I read Eden’s treatment, I was just comparing all the others to hers. I thought graphic design was beautiful, all the colors, the font choices, the attention to detail. I get so many treatments where it’s just blank and white screen text and some random like picture they found on Pinterest. Eden’s felt like it was already in the world that I was imagining like aesthetically.
The main thing that drew me to it was that it was very nonviolent. I think a lot of the treatments [for “Cryptid”] had been misconstrued as like, “the uprising is the deer kill the hunters.” And sure, maybe hunters deserve to get killed sometimes. But I don’t think that’s what we’re trying to say here.
Part of the goal of the video, for me, was if someone who’s on the hunter’s side in the real world is to watch this — like a Republican or whatever — I don’t want them to see it and be like, “Well, yeah, the cryptids ARE the enemy because they’re violent.” There’s already a lot of false things that are projected onto the queer community — about anyone who’s protesting — about it being too violent. That’s absolutely not what I’m trying to say. I’m trying to create a world where these cryptids are marginalized, but they’re proud of themselves, and they have a community together. Uprising is just about demanding your presence. It’s not about killing the aggressor.
Mili: In the video, there are a lot of specific references to queer history and general uprisings that exist in the real world. One of them, which I don’t know if people are gonna clock, but the name tag that the host at the diner is wearing, who’s supposed to be more on the hunter side, is Phyllis, who was a very anti trans leader [Phyllis Schlafly]. And with the purple sashes halfway through the video, those are the same sashes that they wore during the Stonewall Riots. There are little things. As someone who’s been to a bunch of protests, it’s never violent. It always is, to an extent, pretty peaceful. I wanted to portray how I felt and how Robin felt and how a bunch of queer people have felt at like these protests.
How did you find your star, Léoh Hailu-Ghermay, for the video?
Mili: I had another actor initially, who is also trans, and then they couldn’t. I was like, “Do you know anyone?” and their roommate was Léoh, which was perfect. Initially the cryptids were going to have masks on their faces, and then I was looking through Léoh’s Instagram. The makeup that all the cryptids are wearing is makeup that Léoh actually wears in real life every time they go to an event. So the styling was inspired by their actual clothing and style.
Robin, what made you decide to have the cryptids have the deer-like horns?
Cavetown: I guess that spawned from the lyrics, when I was referencing trail cam footage. I was playing a lot in my mind, creating metaphor to represent queer communities, marginalized communities in a different way. One that kept coming back to me was deer-like, cryptid creatures, inspired by skin-walkers [witches in Navajo culture who can turn into animals], who you see on some blurry trail cam footage. That reminds me a lot of the ways footage or stories around trans people and their actions in the world can be distorted and misconstrued and twisted in a different way to work against us. When I think of trail cam footage of a creature, I imagine it with deer horns. I think a lot of skin-walkers are deer-based. There’s something about a deer that’s just beautiful too.
A beauty and grace.
Cavetown: But also a sharpness. Yeah, deer are beautiful, and they’re able to f–k you up, but they’re peaceful. I hadn’t even really thought about the deeper meanings behind why I chose a deer-hybrid creature, but I think that’s probably part of it too.
I wouldn’t call “Cryptid” an angry song, but it has more of a bite than some of your other stuff. Maybe more frustration.
Cavetown: Yeah, definitely frustration. A frustration that I felt for a long time, and through my community, I’ve felt more empowered to voice that frustration. I felt a lot of pressure in the past to not say anything unless it’s going to be constructive, or I’m going to provide some big idea that no one’s ever said before or make a difference. You feel very powerless.
But I’ve been feeling that there is a power that I do control, that no one can take away from me or from anyone like me: that’s my demanding that I exist and that I deserve to exist. We’re always going to be in control of our community. You can’t really destroy it no matter how many stupid laws you pass. A lot of it comes from a place of anger, but also in an empowering way. Demanding, “No, you’re wrong. You don’t see me the way I am. I deserve to be here, and so does everybody else.”
What was the shoot like? Cathartic?
Cavetown: I was definitely nervous because I’m pretty new to the city. A big thing for me moving here has been wanting to get out and make more friends, especially more friends in the queer community. I’ve grown up isolating myself from my own community in a way which is kind of crazy since I make songs for my community. But I’ve created a wall where I just get anxious that people are gonna know who I am already and stuff. I was nervous to step into this space where I knew there’d be a lot of queer people and I wanted to do the message justice. But I made so many really great friends. Léoh was so lovely and so great to work with, and so is Eden. There were so many extras there, too, which was really fun to get to know some of the local queer people.
Mili: People hadn’t heard the song, too, so it was their first time hearing it and getting their raw reflections on it too. I could tell people were definitely connecting with it. Nadine, who was playing Phyllis, the host, I found her through a friend of a friend. She was like, “My son came out when they were in middle school, high school,” and it’s a sad story because they were bullied to the extent where they then killed themselves. But in saying that, she was excited to be a part of something that could shine for him.
Thanks for sharing. That’s horrifically sad. But also speaks to the queer community’s ability to take that pain and create and come together and share. Robin, I wanted to ask you about another song from Running With Scissors, “NPC.” Great title. Where did that come from?
Cavetown: “NPC” was mainly inspired by this imaginary friend I had as a kid called Mr. Nobody. And his whole deal was that he was just wasn’t there. He was just absent. For some reason I just had this I had in my mind that he’s the absence of matter, holding a briefcase, and he was always away on a work trip. He existed for me, even though I never really met him. I hadn’t thought about him for a long time until I was battling with my own relationship with touring and with traveling. I find transitions really hard, moving between being at home and being away and then being in a different hotel, being in a bus. It’s very overwhelming for me. I’m always on a work trip, and I was like, “Mr. Nobody, that’s me now. I’m kind of that guy that I imagined so many years ago.”
And having that realization felt comforting. That imaginary friend was representing something that I would become, which felt like a weird, spiritual, “Whoa, I’ve always known that I’m going to be someone who’s traveling.” Also, it reminded me to find a sense of home and a sense of grounding within just myself, because I’ve been with myself my whole life. I live in this body, and this body is my home, and that’s the one constant that I can take everywhere with me.
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