Just in time for NYC Pride, Julia Weldon is pleased to exclusively premiere her newest video, “All I Gave Her” on Autostraddle. The video was directed by Diane Russo and DPed by Angela Cheng.
“All I Gave Her” is the latest track off Julia’s newest album, Light Is A Ghost, which was produced by Saul MacWilliams (Ingrid Michaelson, Dan Romer) and featuring drums by Adam Christgau of Tegan and Sara/Sia fame. Described by The Advocate as “the most soulful singer you’ve never heard of,” Julia’s been working hard to make a video for every track on the record. Julia explains, “I wrote ‘All I Gave Her’ the year after I graduated from college and after 9 months of not being able to write any songs I felt good about — it was the longest writers’ block I’d ever had. A lot of my songs are about temporal moments in a relationship and this song is that moment right before, or right when, you decide to break up with someone. At the time I was holding it all in, but this is the song that broke the dam and I wrote a lot of songs soon after this. ”
Director Diane Russo explains, “I wanted to do a video for All I Gave Her because it’s about addictive highs, and lows of a tortured relationship — something most of us can relate to. I wanted to explore imagery that could tell a story of two people crazy in love and exhausted of each other.”
“I can’t explain how magical it was to work with Diane Russo on this music video – from beginning to end it’s been so awesome,” Julia gushes. “Diane is an amazing photographer who’s been traveling the world as Cass Bird‘s photo assistant for the past 5 years. We were at our friends’ queer wedding in Joshua Tree and I handed Diane my album Light Is a Ghost and she came up to me only hours later and said, ‘I listened to the whole album and I wanna direct ‘All I Gave Her.” A month later, Diane had an entire cast and crew ready to shoot. She approached the shoot like a short film rather than a music video and people will feel that. It’s hard to believe, but this is her debut music video.
“I was also super pumped to work with Diane because it meant getting to work with her partner Angela Cheng as part of the package. Diane and Angela are partners in both life and work, and Angela and I have have been friends for years. She now directs tons of videos for TED Talks, but back in 2008 I acted in her NYU super gay thesis film Wicked Desire. It was so special to have Angela’s genius skills as a cinematographer to actualize Diane’s vision for the storyline. The lead actress, Connie Saltman blew everyone away and I know she’ll gain some fans from this video because she’s also a total babe. This music video was made by a mostly queer, predominantly female-identified cast and crew, and I think that created a really productive creative environment for us.”
well, isn’t this just the best
Ah so cool!!!
ahhh, sad feels
Oh, that was so beautiful in a melancholic way.
So good! Thanks for introducing me to such amazing artists Autostraddle!
<3 <3 <3 <3 :heart eyes emoji:
Coming out of lurker land to say very cool!
So good; all the feels.
Love it!