The veteran stop-motion animator Virpi Kettu opens up about the project.

In 24 hours, Radiohead’s new single and music video have already inspired a flurry of interpretation and analysis. Some of the most interesting thoughts about ‘Burn The Witch’ come from Virpi Kettu, who animated the video and previously worked with director Chris Hopewell on the band’s similarly stop-motion video for ‘There There’.

She recently told Billboard she thinks the project was inspired by the current refugee crisis and Islamophobia that’s followed suggesting that the current “blaming of different people… the blaming of Muslims and the negativity” lead to the sort of ‘burn the witch’ mentality of the video. Even Radiohead’s announcement of the song with postcards mailed to fans saying “we know where you live” create the sensation of insecurity spawned by anti-immigration (and anti-Muslim) politicians.

Of course, it’s contrasted with the video’s idyllic childlike animation, something Kettu, a veteran of Aardman Animations, the company best known for Wallace & Gromit, is an expert in.

“They wanted the video to contrast with what they’re playing and to wake people up a bit,” she said.

Incredibly, the video came together in only two weeks. Considering the slow process of stop-animation (Kettu says in the early days of Wallace & Gromit they could animated four seconds in a day, now they’re up to 12) the two week time frame they were given seemed impossible. She barely slept during the two weeks.

“I really love Radiohead and I really love animation, so you put those two together and I’d do anything,” she said, “It was one of the most demanding things I’ve ever done in my life, physically and mentally”.

Read our thoughts on Radiohead’s ‘Burn The Witch’ and revisit the video below.

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