Nanaimo singer-songwriter Laura Kelsey is releasing a new music video with visual effects, a wolf and some precarious dancing.
On May 11, Kelsey is unveiling her latest single, A Foolish Thing. It’s her first professionally made single in seven years, recorded remotely in her home and sent to producer Winston Hauschild’s Little Island Studio on Bowen Island.
“I do a lot of home recordings but it’s so awesome to see your vision realized by a producer properly,” Kelsey said.
She said the song is about reflecting on a relationship gone bad, and keeping it going would be “a foolish thing.” On May 14 Kelsey is releasing an accompanying music video that she said is about transformation, “because I think we need new ways of thinking if humans are going to survive and thrive in the world.”
She said it’s her most ambitious music video to date and her first time working with a professional videographer and visual effects artists. The video also features dancers from the Prism Dance Connections dance school in Nanaimo.
“Beside showcasing our beautiful landscape and the talent of the dancers, we tried to include some food for thought,” Kelsey said.
Even the wardrobe in the video alludes to themes of transformation and letting go, as Kelsey wears an upcycled dress made by Parksville’ KLoZHAUS Clothing and Textile Design Studio. Also appearing in the video is Tundra, a “wolf ambassador” from the SWELL Wolf Education Centre in Nanaimo that visits schools with a handler to teach about wolves, their habitat and place in the ecosystem.
The video itself shows off the local wilderness, and while it may have been an unconventional stage for the dancers, Kelsey was impressed by their performance.
“They straight-up danced barefoot on rocks and twigs and did these jumps and they never complained,” she said. “And Abby, the gal in the last scene, she danced on sharp rocks at Piper’s Lagoon. The rain was starting to fall, it was a pretty bleak November day, and she did an amazing job.”
A Foolish Thing is available here.
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