When Gang of Youths released “the man himself” last month, it set the stage for frontman Dave Le’aupepe to explore his connection with his late father’s ghost on the band’s yet-to-be announced upcoming album. On the track, Le’aupepe sings about how he’s been struggling with looking towards the future since his father’s death in 2018.
Now in the song’s new video, director Joe Barney adds a new dimension to Le’aupepe’s plight, juxtaposing a visceral performance from the singer with a portrait of him as a boy. It drives home the internal monologues that Le’aupepe has been having with himself as he digs deeper into his father’s Samoan/Australian roots, and it shows the journey his father made to pave the way for his son life.
In a statement, Barney shed some light on the video’s concept:
“Dave came to me with the idea of creating a video that incorporated the idea of a younger version of himself. We wanted to blur the lines of the connection by making it seem like flashes of Dave reminiscing on his childhood or the younger version of himself imagining the future. One of the main focuses for the video was pulling together a sense of nostalgia whilst keeping it feeling dreamlike. We wanted to incorporate elements of stop motion 2D animation to give the video a textured feeling to it and to separate the two parts of the video visually, whilst still existing within the same world. Mickey, the animator, used real textured brush strokes and materials to give the video an authentic feel that visually brings the video out of the screen into something feeling material.”
You can watch the video for “the man himself” above.
Gang Of Youths is a Warner Music artist. .
