Think of late nights roaming around the depressingly alluring city, questioning your existence and the meaning of life. Neon lights combine with those from street lamps, shining subtly, but powerful enough to touch the innermost bearings of your soul. Think back to the carefree days, when you were in love and everything seemed so perfect. This is the kind of mood that radiates throughout B.P. Valenzuela’s song, “Steady”. And now, it’s been flawlessly visualized by Director Petersen Vargas for the new music video.
exiting a vehicle in order to get something from a convenience store. As she nears, she stops in her tracks when she sees her presumably then-lover inside, thus bringing back a flood of memories. Shifting to a wide aspect ratio, the film starts going through a montage of scenes, depicting how life used to be for the both of them.
This montage sequence is interspersed with title cards of lyrics such as, “Is it just loneliness?” and “I have a tendency to pick things apart,” all taken from “Steady”. These artistically placed lines reflect the thoughts and questions running through Valenzuela’s head as she remembers everything that had transpired. Combine that with the use of slow motion, and we realize she’s doing an introspective analysis on these bittersweet memories.
As she looks back, no particular story unfolds––we see shots of them spending time together, listening to music, eating noodles, and simply living in the moment, all of which helped build the foundation of their relationship. Towards the end, we see it crumble; they’re no longer making eye contact, nor holding hands. The shots start showing just silhouettes of the two, until we see Valenzuela walking away, first in memory, and then in real time, as the film reverts back to the present.
She ends up not entering the store, instead backtracking to the vehicle with tears in her eyes. Her friend asks if she was able to get what she wanted, a question which could be interpreted in two ways. First, in the literal sense, and the other, in relation to the memories. To this, Valenzuela simply replies, “Let’s just go.” The vehicle drives away, but in the final shot, we see her still reminiscing in front of the convenience store. This hints at her not having completely moved on from the previous relationship, as if her soul had been left behind.
The music video is a mood film—meant to deliver a certain kind of feeling rather than tell a concrete story. It puts the viewers in the shoes of the protagonist, in hopes of making them experience something that would be difficult to describe using just words. Vargas effortlessly succeeds in this regard, creating something that not only could be watched over and over again, but also something that wonderfully complements a beautifully tragic song.
Photo courtesy of Steady
