Rachael Sage & The Sequins – Kill The Clock
Beloved folk-pop singer-songwriter Rachael Sage and her longtime band The Sequins have released the animated “Kill The Clock” music video.
Appearing on their new album Canopy and excavated from a demo Sage recorded in her teens, “Kill The Clock” is quickly becoming a fan favorite after receiving playlisting love from NPR’s All Songs Considered and combats the oppressive, exhausting feeling of being stuck in a never-ending rat race that can never be sated — the perfect sentiment to take into the holiday season as we slow down to focus on family and the things that really matter.
The animated music video, a chaotic, left-of-center collaboration between two New York polymaths which combines the talents of Fuel Heart Productions’ multimedia artist Carissa Johnson as a director and animator with Sage’s own original paintings.
“‘Kill The Clock’ is a song I rediscovered from a teenage demo my mom found in the basement a couple of years ago,” shares Sage. “While the lyrics are a bit abstract and cryptic compared to how I’ve been writing more recently, I believe I understand the meaning of them more now than I did when I first composed it. It’s about cultural and personal alienation and feeling like everyone and everything around you is geared toward some incomprehensible rat-race, to be more, to own more, to do more… it’s very ’80s greed’ inspired. It reflects on the insanely competitive aspects of the college application process and some of the unfortunate bullying I experienced not only in school but also when I was a ballet student, when body-imagery as well as social status was as much a part of our roller-coaster conservatory dynamics as dancing itself. I chose to include a grown-up version of this song on ‘Canopy’ not only because I thought that The Sequins could bring it to new life, but because it’s essentially about corruption, written from a child’s perspective.”
A balm to all the divisiveness in the world, Canopy is equal parts emotional exhale and invitation to a more compassionate future, tackling themes of acceptance, inclusivity, and safety through songs that feel like a refuge woven from resilience and the irrepressible determination to find light in the darkest places such as stand out tracks “Nexus,” “Live It Up,” “The Best Version,” “Canopy” and “Just Enough.” “Creating safety and inclusivity in times of divisiveness can be a radical and powerful act; it takes courage to stand up for justice and for our fellow human beings,” Sage adds. “Acceptance, inclusivity and safety are big themes on Canopy.”
2025 TOUR DATES:
December 10 – Bowery Electric – New York, NY#
December 11 – The Factory Underground – Norwalk, CT
January 9 – Towne Crier – Beacon, NY
January 22 – City Winery – New York, NY*
February 17 – Helmerich Theater – Key West, FL
February 18 – Hugh’s View Rooftop – Key West, FL
February 25 – The Triad Theater – New York, NY ^
# special holiday show with Seth Glier, Glenn Morrow’s Cry For Help, Karyn Kuhl & The Gang, James Mastro, and more
## with Meghan Carey
*5th Annual Nic Pagano LGBTQIA+ Scholarship For Recovery benefit show
^ with Phil Robinson & Samantha Echo
#rachael_sage