Amanda Palmer Turns Fans’ Memories Into Fire In New Video

Amanda Palmer Turns Fans’ Memories Into Fire In New Video

Amanda Palmer Turns Fans’ Memories Into Fire In New Video

(photo: Kahn and Selesnick)

Amanda Palmer has unveiled one of the most personal — and communal — projects of her career with the release of the music video for “Death Thing.”

Created with dancer and collaborator Coco Karol, the crowd-sourced visual centers on a ritualistic bonfire fueled by hundreds of deeply personal objects mailed to Palmer by members of her 25,000-strong Patreon community. Wedding rings and dresses, dog tags, birth certificates, diplomas, children’s shoes, family photographs and old love letters are all consumed by the flames in what Palmer describes as a collective act of release.

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“This video was a collective act of exorcism on the part of my patrons, using me as the match,” she says. “People have been waiting patiently to see these objects burned since they mailed them to me in hundreds of haunted boxes, envelopes and packages. It’s the largest-scale community-driven project I’ve ever created, and it feels so good to finally be getting back to work and putting art into the world again.”

Palmer says the project grew out of the shared grief and upheaval of recent years. “Everyone I know has walked through their circles of hell over the last five years — loss, grief, COVID, divorces, miscarriages — and this video felt like a way to collaboratively let go of an agonizing past and to take a (literal) naked step forward into the future.”

Filmed in a single take, the video eschews elaborate production in favor of stark intimacy. Palmer appears without professional wardrobe or makeup, wearing clothes from her own closet as she and Karol feed keepsakes into the fire. “I wanted it to feel as unadorned and as human as possible,” she says. “Being able to share the ritual with Coco was also important: women tend to walk through these fires together, and I wanted to show two women helping one another through — and out of — hell.”

The emotional weight of the objects wasn’t lost on her. “I felt a real sense of pride and solemn responsibility throwing people’s childhoods, engagement rings, PhD theses and adoption papers into that fire,” she adds. “Some of the items brought me to tears, especially the things belonging to children.”

The release comes as Palmer prepares for three intimate solo piano shows in Italy, Sweden and Germany, while her band the Dresden Dolls will return to Europe in early September for their first tour there in 20 years, celebrating the forthcoming Yes, Virginia…(Tailor’s Version) after recently regaining the rights to re-record their catalog.

Palmer also revealed she’s working on a new book and developing a Broadway-style live production built around songs written after returning to the United States following an unexpected two-year stay in New Zealand during the pandemic. Reflecting on her upcoming solo performances, Palmer says motherhood has fundamentally reshaped both her songwriting and her relationship with live audiences.

“My songs are written to rip people open, and to do that, I have to rip myself open in the process,” she offers. “But I don’t mind; I’ve gotten really good at stitching myself back up every night.”

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