Animate – Filling Your Void (2022)
There are times when you feel there is something missing in your life and you look to fill it with something you feel will be fulfilling. This process is what Animate are looking at with their single ‘Filling Your Void’. Through the rock tones of the single, they consider how we fill the inner void with virtual lives that satisfy our deepest desires, only to contrast this with the loss of contact with reality that can follow.
While considering this method of filling the inner void, they also offer an alternative, where the void is filled with real emotions including compassion, love and empathy. This consideration of voids comes from friends Luigi Surdo (guitar, vocals, synths) and Filippo Corciulo (bass). They have been friends for a decade and connected through a shared taste in music which has evolved into their own sound.
‘Filling Your Void’ slowly builds through the opening from the lightest shiver of music. The guitar tones rise out of the darkness to pulse against your ears, before the drums start to shake you up. It is a driving melody that punches its way into your chest. The initial push turns into an ongoing tumble of sound that rolls you through the soundscape. There is a touch of classic rock woven into the more modern sound that has some plucky almost electronic tones. From the first moment, you feel the urge to move around to the melody and this doesn’t stop for a second. The dynamic movement of the music through the verses to the chorus is wonderful as it propels you into the vocals of the chorus.
Against the initial pulse of the guitars, Surdo’s vocals float out like a hazy light sliding against the movement of the melody. There is a slightly wispy feeling to the vocals in the opening verse, like it is smoke that will slip through your fingers as you try to grab onto it. This delivery works really well with the lyrics that consider how we fill the void inside with digital media, while the world around us is being destroyed. The intangibility of the vocal delivery mimics the inability of the digital world to completely fulfil the void many feel inside. While his performance dives into this, he does bring the light of hope in the latter parts of the single by offering an alternative.
Animate consider how many people fill the void inside with virtual lives and the problems this can cause, while offering a brighter alternative in ‘Filling Your Void’. The dynamic rock movement pulls you into the single and has you moving to the melody from start to finish. This musical movement propels you into the vocals that have a somewhat intangible edge to them, which mimics the imagery of the lyrics.
Find out more about Animate on their Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
