Exclusive Premiere: Watch Antariksh’s Dystopian Animated Video for ‘Quest’ Featuring Marty Friedman

Suppressed memories, a surreal scape of society in disrepair and an animated version of guitar ace Marty Friedman all make it to Antariksh’s slick new video “Quest.” Directed by visual designer Pratik Dey and featuring a host of animators, “Quest” plays out as an intriguing visual accompaniment to the New Delhi rock band’s smoldering prog turn.

Antariksh founder, guitarist and vocalist Varun Rajput says the video intends to convey how a child is discontented with society and its “state of affairs” and burns his memories to escape trauma and seek purpose. “As he grows and falls into the slow rut of society as we know it, he gets lost in the river of astray souls. This leads him to become a part of the system he once questioned, till something nudges him, only for him to realize that the quest itself is his purpose. He must complete this quest and attain closure to everything that has happened in honor of the transition away from what’s finished to something new,” Rajput adds in a statement.

The frontman says it was a longtime dream to create an animated video for Antariksh and “Quest” fit the bill. Reaching out to Bengaluru-based Dey, the team worked on the video from September last year, putting in five months of “extraordinary effort to finish the project.” Rajput adds about the process, “It started with Pratik mapping out the energy dynamics of the song, choosing a narrative style, visual direction, and then narrowing down to the concept and character designs we all liked before beginning the work on the animatic and the actual production which took about three months.”

Previously, Friedman had spoken to Rolling Stone India about being part of “Quest.” As it turns out, the Japan-based guitarist and composer gets tons of offers to collaborate and feature with other artists. “Personally, I want to do every single thing that comes my way, because I love to make new music-all the time. Thankfully my manager is very picky about things he allows me to do, and he is the one who turns down things for so many reasons, mostly having to do with release issues or label issues. For me though, if I hear something I can add something positive to, that’s all I need to get going.”

Watch the video for “Quest” below.