In 2014, we released the Bored of Education music video, which earned an NPR feature and 45,000 views that year. I’m excited to once again work with Director Bruno Tore (of TRP; worked w/ Lil Jon, Pusha-T, Aloe Blacc..) to bring two more powerful music videos to life. The songs that we’re working with were both produced by Jeremy Lim and recorded and mixed at Jonymac Studio, and are two of the most popular songs on the album.
The first song is New Day, featuring Gregory Stutzer of The.Wav. This video picks up right where the Bored of Education video left off… But now it’s time to cut school. In my work as an educator, my goal is that students leave our school everyday feeling empowered. My goal with the video is similar. I want viewers to end feeling empowered to breakthrough society’s artificial limitations on who they can become. The video will include performance footage of the song from the Lush NYC Party on July 2.
Maya, will be a very different kind of music video. The song, at first listen, tells a tragic love story about a relationship that devolves over time. One look deeper, and it also tells a story about humanity’s relationship with our earth. The goal of the video is to use powerful, subtle, imagery to tell the two parallel stories in a compelling way. My hope is that this will inspire viewers at a powerful moment in our history, several months before the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in December, and help to expand consciousness on the tough decisions we need to make that will impact our climate, our planet, and ultimately all of us.
Our goal is to finish shooting by end of summer 2015 and release the videos one at a time over the 6 months that follow. I’m genuinely excited to continue growing as a musical artist as I work with many teammates and supporters to bring these videos to life. Sending tremendous respect and appreciation for any contributions you can make to help bring these videos to life.
There are lots of challenges that will come along, just as they did during the creation of the last video. We are determined to push through, find creative solutions, and make these videos happen. Here’s some of the biggest challenges that I foresee:
1. Rights to Environmental Footage: In order to bring the vision for the Maya video to life, we need beautiful environmental footage that would be impossible for us to capture on our own. So we’ll need to get rights to license footage from other companies. I’m already in conversation with a environmental organizations and licensing companies to figure this out.
2. Lighting: Directors know that this is always one of the most important things to take into account. We’ll have some scenes in an apartment, and some of my awesome friends who have plenty of natural light have already volunteered their spaces. Making sure that the lighting at the July 2 performance venue is sufficient is another concern, so Bruno and I will scope it out in advance to make sure we have all the equipment we need. Lighting equipment can be expensive and is figured into the costs of the project.
3. Maya Actress: We’ll need to find the right model/actress to play the starring role of Mother Earth in the artistic Maya video. I’m in the process of organizing auditions to find her.
4. Kids: We’ll need to choose some awesome student actors and actresses from my school to be a part of the New Day video. This will be difficult only because I know a whole lot of amazing kids. I won’t want to choose. Maybe they can all be in it again. Hmmm…