Seattle based composer, orchestra arranger, violinist and producer has just released a video, via Yahoo Music, for his single, “Desiderata.” The single if off of his first ever solo project, Awake at the Bottom of the Ocean, and features vocals from Queens of the Stone Age and Screaming Trees‘ Mark Lanegan.
According to Yahoo Music, Joslyn had this to say of the track and its newly released video.
“Desiderata was a poem that hung in my parents’ house for years, and I would always wake up every morning to it, and read it. Over time, it became an internalized mantra of sorts, and I’ve revisited it many times since I’ve left my parents. The message of it — written by the poet Max Ehrmann back in 1927 — resonates so deeply, and spiritually for me…. essentially it had to be represented on my record in some way.”
“The song is the spiritual anchor of the record,” explains Joslyn. “At the bottom of the ocean, there is always hope, balance, and the simple pursuit of happiness. For the video, I had my brother act as the lead. Our parents are both Zen Buddhists, so having him involved only brought the entire project and its message full circle.”
The video opens with Joslyn’s brother waking up in the middle of the desert, confused as to how he got there. The video takes on an overall structure that you see in plenty of mens cologne commercials; good looking guy in a suite walking through an ominous landscape with a prominent voice to narrate an internal struggle. Taking nothing away from the video’s artistic view, it does a great job of taking the poem Joslyn mention’s above and putting a story to the words. Lanegan’s voice adds a sort of experience to the wisdom of the words and helps to tie the dirt of the dessert in with the sophistication of personal journey that the poem is themed. See the video below.
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