riVer SoNg

/// official music video by ALA ///

I grew up At the height of MTV…

…a time before ‘reality TV’…when the ‘Music Television Channel’ played music videos.

Now, that is certainly a bygone era, and many music industry professionals say that music videos are dead. However, I disagree…

Perhaps it’s sentimentality, or just stubbornness, but I’ll never give up on the music video!

To be clear, I wasn’t planning on this video at all! Here’s how it happened…

One day, while scrolling through Instagram, I came upon a visual artist named ALA. His work was dreamy, ethereal, boundless. In other words, I dug it, and I wrote him a little note saying so.

We soon began an exchange of messages, and soon after that we decided to work together on a video for one of my songs.

I had just finished mastering ‘River Song’ and thought it would be a good fit. It was composed throughout the pandemic lockdowns and finished shortly after Jenny and I took a cross country trip to kayak on the Colorado River.

I was struck by the landscape of the American Southwest, particularly New Mexico.

In my conversations with ALA, we discussed desert landscapes, nature, urbanization, adventure, meditation, and other themes that would become a part of this video.

To me, the ‘River Song’ video is like a dream. Forever shifting. One should never try to hold it still, rather, follow where it leads…

/// credits ///

Mike Lorenz - guitar

Elliot Bild - trumpet

Jenny Maas - voice/synth

ALA - art design/animation