Justin Stewart Cotta found hope in hopelessness with his recent single ‘Love Yourself’, but it looks like he’s still searching for it in his new music video.
Having established himself as a musical tour de force as the founding member of Memeto and the guitarist and keyboardist for VAST, Justin Stewart Cotta showed a new side of himself with his most recent single ‘Love Yourself’.
A relatively stripped down acoustic song that puts Cotta’s performance at the forefront, ‘Love Yourself’ was all about finding hope in the hopelessness of everything, a feeling that was exacerbated due to the pandemic.
“For so many of us there has always been a pandemic… depression and anxiety. It has taken some of my closest friends,” Justin said of the single. “I have found myself on the edge more than once. I’m just very fortunate to have had a guitar and a melody to talk me down.”
“In a time of isolation and despair, this particular tune became a close friend. I reckon the greatest gift you can offer someone is to give them some hope when they are experiencing utter hopelessness”
And it seems like Cotta isn’t done giving people his gift of hope during these strange times as he’s now dropped a beautiful new music video for ‘Love Yourself’.
Filmed throughout Sydney, the video sees Justin making his way through a dark and empty version of the city before eventually finding his way out.
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“I was really interested in the camera embodying a hungry ghost, stalking our busker, inspiring our busker, nudging him eerily along, from cognitive prison to spiritual freedom,” says Cotta of the inspiration behind the music video. ‘A journey away from man-made constructs and toward some semblance of universal connection.’
“As directors, myself and Jess Orrego were inspired by films like The Road, The Dark Knight and Taxi Driver. As haunting and as dark as the video is, every frame is chasing the light. Mother Nature did us a huge favour, although we didn’t appreciate it at the time.
“I had the cliff shots at the edge of the earth originally storyboarded as a golden sunrise… Elysium if you will. Instead we got storms, wind and side-rain.
“Seems like nature knew that not all journeys conclude with confetti and a brass band. The film clip is far richer and deeper in light of the storm’s intervention. I’m lucky to have survived.. Jess nearly kicked me off the cliff edge for insisting that we keep shooting in the rain!”
Check out the music video for ‘Love Yourself’ by Justin Stewart Cotta:
