Deciding the concept behind a music video can be a terrifying prospect, so when I had only a week to get my ideas together for shooting my next single 'Restart' I knew I had to find inspiration and fast! When I write a song I usually sit there and daydream about what the music video could look like, but with Restart I remember striking a blank and wondering what I would do if it ever got chosen as a single. Fast forward nearly a year and that thought became a reality as I realised I had very little time to get my ideas together before meeting with my wonderful director and collaborator Glen Jevon. Not only did I want the video to reflect my personality and the lyrical content of the song, but I wanted it to engage a modern audience and have a creative and quirky feel to it.
Check out the 'Restart' video below
I started doing a lot of research - research on the most popular videos of 2015 and 2016 so far, and research into some of my favourite artists and inspirations behind some of my songs. After all, where better to look than the real reason why I felt impassioned to write music in the first place? That's when I discovered some incredible footage from artists like Tove Lo, Regina Spektor and Jessie Ware. They really captured the vibe that I was after and suddenly I was overwhelmed with ideas.
My meeting with Glen helped to solidify these ideas into a storyboard and we realised that best way to express my feelings in the song was through some crazy camera techniques and special effects. We decided on two looks - Urban and Natural, and from there we were able to come up with some fantastic shooting locations on the streets of Southampton and the beautiful woodlands of the New Forest.
Looking at current music video trends, its easy to see why a forest would be a great place to shoot a video - take Taylor Swift's Out of The Woods for instance, it captures the feel of the song in a breathtaking landscape that gives an ethereal beauty and cinematic feel. That was exactly what Glen and I were after and the New Forest created the perfect backdrop to this.
But just shooting in the forest alone wasn't enough; we wanted to create something extra special, which is why we used smoke grenades (in my favourite colour purple) to give a whole new feel to the scenes. It was also at this point that I had to sing the song at both double the normal pace and at half the speed to create a softened and sped up look for the video - let me tell you, this is no mean feat when its 0 degrees and you're wearing a thin shirt standing in the middle of the woods!
Then it was onto the urban shots, which Glen masterfully arranged to include even more special effects. We shot across the whole of one day into sunset and nightfall. I think this added to the continuity of the video and it made for one hell of a sunset! And then that, as they say, was a wrap!
I was over the moon when I saw the finished video - it captures everything I wanted it to and remains true to the feel of the song. Now I'm so excited to be able to share it with the whole world and I cant wait to see what everyone thinks. This whole experience taught me that being under time pressure can be daunting, but it can also push you to create your best ideas yet!
Hope you enjoy watching 'Restart' as much as I loved making it!