Dear Reader is an alternative/pop band from Johannesburg, South Africa. The band was founded back in 2006 by singer-songwriter Cherilyn MacNeil and Darryl Torr, a producer/bass player. They have released four studio albums; the first one called The Younger (2006), Replace Why with Funny (2009), Idealistic Animals (2011), and the latest one is Rivonia which was released earlier this year.

The first single of Rivonia is “Took Them Away.” The song has a powerful narrative-descriptive lyrics, along with a hint of suspense that could bring the listeners into the story that the band tries to deliver. It is also combined with African music elements that can be heard in the beat and the background choir.

The video for Took Them Away recently got featured on Vimeo Staff Picks. It was directed by Rob Savage, a young award-winning writer/director based in the UK. The video perfectly animates the lyrics of the song. It potrays a girl who is invited to play at her friend’s family farm. In the barn, she saw a Caucasian girl (her friend’s sister) hanging out with an African boy (the servant of her friend’s family). At night, she told her father what she saw earlier that day. Later she found out that her friend’s family forcibly separated their daughter and the servant and she is haunted by her guilt because she told her father.

With such a beautiful lighting and dramatic editing, the video of Took Them Away leaves an emotionally intense sensation for its watchers. Even more, the video has been nominated for the Best Music Video at the Smalls Film Festival and featured on Adam Buxton’s BUG 39 show at the BFI Southbank.

And to listen more songs of this band, please visit the band’s Soundcloud page.

Text by Vania Chandra Kirana