Synopsis
A masked, fox-like heroine plunges through a surreal digital world, changing her elaborate headpieces as she falls. Her descent becomes a sequence of transformations, with animal, human, mechanical, and cosmic imagery colliding around her. She passes through barriers and shifting landscapes before the video arrives at a more radiant, expansive vision. The narrative is deliberately dreamlike rather than literal, turning the song's emotional tension into a fantastical journey about identity, ambition, and the many faces a person can present.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was created as a computer-generated animation by the Seattle-based team of Brody Davis and Eric Edwards.
- The central concept came from the image of a heroine falling while wearing a series of evolving masks and headpieces. The band approved the idea, allowing the visual language to develop around transformation rather than a straightforward storyline.
- Niki & The Dove explained that the heroine is not running from or hunting for something. She is trying to achieve something, which gives the plunge a sense of purpose rather than simple escape.
- The changing masks were intended to represent the different sides of a human being. This makes the repeated alterations to the heroine's face the video's clearest symbolic device.
- The song itself was inspired by a children's story by Swedish author Pija Lindenbaum, in which a character confides problems to a fox that buries them in the ground.
- The production received a Davey Gold award and was later featured by Motionographer and Stash magazine. It was also selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick and screened in connection with SXSW.
- "The Fox" was first issued by Sub Pop as a 12-inch single in 2011, before appearing on the band's 2012 album "Instinct".