Kay Odyssey Topples Zeus

When Kristina Boswell penned “Mountains in My Step,” an obvious highlight from her psych outfit Kay Odyssey’s summer LP What’s a Woman to Do, she employed images of western America’s towering landscape to describe the sensual passion she felt for someone – a boulder metaphor (pun intended) rather than the key to one’s heart.

When Austin filmmaker Vanessa Pla first listened to the the track, she heard a strong theme of empowerment – a woman taking huge leaps. At the same time, the band’s name brought to mind the Homeric epic, Greek mythology, and Zeus, whose status in civilized patriarchy can be summed up by the passage the video paraphrases:

“As the sky god, Zeus had easy access to the women of the world and took full advantage of it. Also, his power as a supreme god made him difficult to resist.”

Interpreting that passage resulted in one of the most fascinating music videos out of Austin all year. The clip for “Mountains in My Step” depicts bored schoolgirls touring a museum of women posing nude as Greek statues.

“The boredom you see is my boredom with hearing the same story over and over where it’s a male in power,” explains Pla. “The girls in class are frustrated, so then, all of a sudden, they unleash this sexual energy where they get to express themselves in a sexual way, but on their terms.”

The director says creating the video was also a testament to female expression. Actresses took off their clothes, but for the right reasons.


“It’s almost impossible in this world for a woman to not be sexualized,” she acknowledges.

Interwoven into the video is remarkable animation from Gatita Negra, whose jumping off point was Jaime Zuverza’s artwork for the What’s a Woman to Do album. And among the all-female cast, glimpse painter/actress Lorelei Linklater of Boyhood smashing Julius Caesar’s head with a baseball bat.

“Mountains in My Step,” see the carnage here: