Music video update: Caleb Johnson, The Verve Pipe

Season 13 American Idol Winner Caleb Johnson just unveiled his new music video “Fighting Gravity,” which can be viewed here: http://bitly.co/FightingGravityYahooPremiere. 

 

It was inspired by a real life experience and conceptualized by Caleb, along with Mark Staubach (American Authors, Travie McCoy, Dirty Heads) who also directed the video.

 

Caleb explains: “The video was inspired by a personal experience I had this past year while visiting a family whose son had a rare but terminal form of pediatric cancer. Using “Fighting Gravity” as the musical backdrop, I wanted to create an emotional connection and raise awareness of a disease that tragically affects so many families. I hope people will be inspired to lend support to people they know that are going through similar experiences.”

 

"Fighting Gravity,” co-written by Caleb, Brian Howes & Lenny Skolnik, is the first official video release from his Testify album. The album features 10 tracks produced by Howard Benson (Bon Jovi, My Chemical Romance, Gavin DeGraw) with Caleb backed by Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, former Nine Inch Nails/Guns N’ Roses drummer Josh Freese, and guitarist Phil X (Rob Zombie and Tommy Lee).

 

In addition, Caleb is joining forces with the organization, DoSomething.org for its “Patient Playbooks” campaign in conjunction with the release of “Fighting Gravity.” “Patient Playbooks encourages young people to make activity books for children in hospitals to brighten their stay. To sign up and download a playbook template, visit DoSomething.org/FightingGravity

 

The singer will perform “Fighting Gravity” at the Cherry Blossom Parade in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, April 11 as well as at the 2015 National Memorial Day Parade in DC on Monday, May 25. Johnson will also perform a hometown show on Saturday, May 2 at Harrah’s Casino in Cherokee, North Carolina. Caleb is planning a string of tour dates throughout the Southeast during the month of May.

 

A full list of tour dates to be announced soon at CalebJohnsonOfficial.com.

Testify is now available on iTunes: http://bit.ly/TestifyAlbumiTunes

 

The Verve Pipe -- best known for their 1997 #1 hit "The Freshmen" -- have released a new video for the title cut of their current album Overboard. The song was co-written by frontman Brian Vander Ark and actor/musician Jeff Daniels, and the music video was directed by world-renowned artist Lawrence Carroll.

Watch it now here: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/exclusive-video-premiere-overboard-the-verve-pipe.

“For me, ‘Overboard’ works as a song, but it really could be anything--a movie, a novel, the first season of a TV series,” Jeff Daniels expressed to Interview. “It’s that kind of story.” The song unravels a tale of a mysterious beautiful young woman and her inexplicable fate.

Lawrence Carroll served as art director for the famed Nirvana music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and went on to direct The Verve Pipe's first music video for "Photograph" as well as videos for Jewel, Counting Crows and Collective Soul, among others.

 

Since that time, Lawrence has gone on to become a revered painter and sculptor, best known for his table paintings made from everyday scrap materials. Carroll’s work has been exhibited at the Vatican, the Hotel des Arts in Toulon, France, the Museo Correr in Venice, and documenta IX in Kassel, Germany, among other institutions. His work is held by several public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Lawrence had been on a 15-year hiatus from directing music videos before agreeing to create “Overboard.” The video was shot over three days in the frigid cold on the shore of the upper peninsula of Lake Michigan and the lead actress is Lawrence’s daughter Rory.

“I reached out to Lawrence last year, right after the song was recorded,” Vander Ark shares. “I knew that he would feel what I felt about the song--that it was a cold world, figuratively and literally. I see Northern Michigan in his paintings. The ice and snow, the rocks and water, the autumnal and winter skies are all there on the ‘canvas.' The bitter cold that a naked body would feel as it hit the ice water. The loneliness, the stories on the faces.”

Lawrence was immediately interested in the project upon hearing the song and agreed that Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was the ideal location to capture the emotion of “Overboard.” “It is devastatingly beautiful in winter and I have always been attracted to this light,” he says. “The landscape is shrouded in an infinite haze of white light, a frozen land that is unforgiving and formidable.”