Call Me When You Land: Meaning and Music Video

Artists: Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-SinghBen Cramer, Nashville, and Luke Sital-Singh, Los Angeles
Song: Call Me When You LandLead single from All The Ways You Sing In The Dark
Released: Friday, 22 May 2020Eight weeks into lockdown
Made: Remotely, in lockdownNo shoot, no crew, no flights
Runtime: 3:27Plus a Spotify Canvas, a :15 ad and a :30 square
Label: NettwerkWith Raygun Music

Call Me When You Land is a song about distance: the leaving, the landing, and the voice you want to hear at the other end.

Old Sea Brigade and Luke Sital-Singh wrote it in Los Angeles in 2019, as the lead single from their collaborative EP, All The Ways You Sing In The Dark. It came out on 22 May 2020, eight weeks into lockdown, and became a different song overnight: a song about travel no one could take, and people no one could hold.

An airplane wing through the window at golden hour from RIOT's Call Me When You Land music video for Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh

What the song is about

Ben Cramer, the Atlanta-born songwriter behind Old Sea Brigade, and Luke Sital-Singh, a Londoner living in Los Angeles, met at a show at Rockwood Music Hall in New York in 2017. Two years later they wrote most of this EP in a week at Luke’s place, driving around Silver Lake and Hollywood, and finished it in Nashville that December. Call Me When You Land came together the morning after an evening plan at the Chateau Marmont fell through.

It is a song about the space between two people, and the call that closes it: one of you somewhere in the air, the other waiting to hear you landed safe. Written before anyone had heard the word lockdown, it arrived in the middle of one. Suddenly everyone knew exactly what it meant to miss someone they could not reach, and to long for a journey they could not take.

“Our music video for Call Me When You Land will offer a dreamy glimpse of hope in what is currently a very isolated world.”

From our director's treatment, written by MUG5

The director’s treatment

We wrote the film as a treatment of chapters. Leaving on a jet plane. Isolated landscapes, in wides, mids and desert, without a single soul in sight, so the viewer stops watching someone else’s story and starts feeling their own. Human connection, in longing and in togetherness. And abstraction through textures. Running through all of it, light, as hope: there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Call Me When You Land director's treatment by RIOT, page 1: the cover, an airplane window at golden hour — The director's treatment, all nineteen pages. Scroll sideways.

Call Me When You Land director's treatment by RIOT, page 2: Joshua trees silhouetted at sunset — The director's treatment, all nineteen pages. Scroll sideways.

The most isolated of all

The film opens in orbit, on an astronaut alone above the curve of the Earth. When the first cut went over, one of the notes asked to move him further back. We pushed to keep him where he was, and the artists were with us. He sets up everything that follows. Maybe every scene after him is a thought in the astronaut’s head. He is the most isolated of all.

The opening: the Earth from orbit, and the astronaut looking back at it

No shoot, no crew, no flights

In the spring of 2020 nobody could shoot anything. The artists were open to filming themselves, but Ben was isolating alone with an iPhone and no camera experience, and cutting phone footage against cinema cameras would have felt forced. On a Zoom call on 1 May we all agreed to stay with the treatment. So the film was made entirely in the edit, directed and cut remotely by Chris “MUG5” Maguire and Nastassja Simone from cinematic footage of deserts, coastlines, cities, airports and the people in them.

Leaving on a jet plane: the terminal, the runway, the landing

Isolated landscapes: Joshua trees at dusk, a desert of mirrors, mountains in the mist

Palm Springs to Malibu

The notes on the first cut were about people. Use the shorter music video edit of the song. Follow one or two people, so an abstract story runs between them. Show more people trying to connect, some getting there and some not. And more Southern California: the Palm Springs desert, the Malibu coast. The second cut went over that Friday, and the film was signed off the following Monday.

Longing: windows, phones, waiting

Togetherness: the embrace, and the hug at the end

Abstraction through textures: storm clouds, deep water, the inside of a balloon

Ben and Luke, in black and white

For the release we cut a Spotify Canvas, a 15 second vertical ad and a 30 second square. Ben and Luke had each filmed themselves playing the chorus on their phones, so for the ad we toned their footage in black and white, so it would feel chic and classy rather than gimmicky, and cut it against the film’s landscapes.

The 15 second ad: Ben and Luke, self-filmed, in black and white

Four weeks

From treatment to release

Late AprThe treatmentA dreamy glimpse of hope, in chapters.
Fri 1 MayThe callOn Zoom, everyone agrees to stay with the treatment.
Mon 11 MayFirst cutThe astronaut opens the film.
Wed 13 MayNotesMore people, more connection, more Southern California.
Fri 15 MaySecond cutThe shorter edit of the song, the new scenes in.
Tue 19 MayFinalSigned off and delivered, 3:27.
Thu 21 MayThe socialsA Spotify Canvas and a 15 second ad in black and white.
Fri 22 MayReleaseOut in the world, eight weeks into lockdown.

Three songs, one lockdown

Call Me When You Land was the first of three videos we made for the EP. Next came Summertime Low and Amaranth Moonlight, and then a live performance of the EP, filmed remotely on cameras shipped to Ben and Luke. Before the EP was even out in full, its singles were nearing a million streams on Spotify. All The Ways You Sing In The Dark came out on Nettwerk on 28 August 2020.

Call Me When You Land, in short

Summertime Low →Nettwerk and RIOT →

What is Call Me When You Land about?

Distance and longing: missing someone, wanting to travel, and waiting to hear a voice at the end of a journey. Written in Los Angeles in 2019 and released in May 2020, it arrived in lockdown, when that longing was everywhere.

Who sings Call Me When You Land?

Old Sea Brigade, the project of Nashville songwriter Ben Cramer, and the British singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh.

When was Call Me When You Land released?

The song and its music video came out on Friday 22 May 2020, as the lead single from the pair's collaborative EP.

What EP is Call Me When You Land on?

All The Ways You Sing In The Dark, the collaborative EP by Old Sea Brigade and Luke Sital-Singh, released on Nettwerk on 28 August 2020, with Summertime Low, Los Feliz and Amaranth Moonlight.

Who directed the Call Me When You Land video?

Chris “MUG5” Maguire and Nastassja Simone of RIOT, the New York creative agency, who also edited it.

Where was the Call Me When You Land video filmed?

It was not filmed in the usual way. It was made in lockdown, when no one could shoot, and built in the edit from cinematic footage of deserts, coastlines, cities, airports and the people in them.

Why is there an astronaut in the video?

He opens the film, alone above the Earth. Maybe the whole video is his memory of home. He is the most isolated of all.

Are Old Sea Brigade and Luke Sital-Singh in the video?

Not in the film itself: in lockdown, with only phones to shoot on, the artists and RIOT chose to stay with the treatment. They appear in black and white in the 15 second ad we cut for the release.

Credits