THE BEATLES premiere brand new Em Cooper directed video for ‘I’m Only Sleeping’

The Beatles
The Beatles. Photo by: Carsten Windhorst

Following last Friday’s release of Revolver Special Edition, The Beatles have premiered the brand new video for ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ at London’s new immersive venue OUTERNET, a stunning first look at the entertainment complex’s giant digital screens. Directed by Em Cooper, the beautiful video was made using 1300 oil paintings and looked mindblowing on the 4K resolution screens. 

Beautiful harmonies, experimental recording methods and avant-garde composition combine to create this dreamlike song, evocative of The Beatles’ pioneering approach to the music of Revolver. Artist and director Em Cooper explored the space between dreaming and wakefulness, working on an animation rostrum on sheets of celluloid. She painted every frame individually in oil paint, a laborious process which took many months.

“It was a project that I felt an immediate spark for right from the word go, and somehow that momentum carried me right through to the end,” Em Cooper said of the video. “I love The Beatles. We used to listen to this song on tape in the car when I was a child, and the song itself evokes such a mesmerising, languid, dreamy state, in a way my job was only to follow its lead with a paintbrush in my hand.”

“The song offers up many readings and I think it feels especially relevant right now. I began with the thought that this would simply be John drifting in and out of sleep, flowing between wakefulness and memory and peppered with surreal moments, dipping into the history of The Beatles, with everything fleeting and ungraspable. But the meanings of the film soon began to spread out, encompassing The Beatles’ anti-war feelings, and reflecting on our place in the world. In my work I’ve always been interested in using paint to evoke thought, or subjective experience – the way things flow inside your mind. So for me this song which sways between the inner world of sleep and the outer world of waking, was a thrilling and beautiful opportunity,” Em concluded on directing the video.

Watch the Em Cooper-directed video for ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ – BELOW:

Get The Beatles’ Revolver into your life with the album’s newly mixed and expanded Special Edition, available everywhere in a range of physical and digital configurations, including 5CD and 4LP Super Deluxe box sets, 2CD Deluxe, 1LP Picture Disc vinyl, 1LP vinyl, 1CD, Download and Streaming. The album’s new stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes + its original mono mix are accompanied by never-before-released session recordings and demos, plus the “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” EP.

Showcasing Klaus Voormann’s GRAMMY®-winning original album cover artwork, the Special Edition’s Super Deluxe CD and vinyl box sets include a beautiful book featuring Paul McCartney’s foreword, an introduction by Giles Martin, an enlightening essay by Questlove, and insightful chapters by Kevin Howlett.

The Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver changed everything. Spinning popular music off its axis and ushering in a vibrant new era of experimental, avant-garde sonic psychedelia, Revolver brought about a cultural sea change and marked an important turn in The Beatles’ own creative evolution. With Revolver, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr set sail together across a new musical sea.

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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