Montreal’s singer-songwriter, Patrick Krief, premieres his video for “Venus,” off of his album ‘Dovetale,’ today on American Songwriter. The Indie artist, better known as Krief, is revisiting his 2019 album release with a vibrant visualization of the song central to the themes of this record.
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Named for the goddess of fertility, Krief shared the entire album was born of this song, and the felt the need to bring it to life with cinematic imagery. Krief sets his stage on a dry lake bed in the desert outside of Vegas. The simple visual of geographic isolation overlays with a backdrop of piercingly blue skies.
“We rolled the dice, and got very lucky with perfect weather,” Krief admitted. “The shoot was a beautiful experience in which so many lucky things happened to capture perfect shots.”
Krief shared that while he is writing arrangements for “Venus,” he had clear visuals in mind. “Venus” was the first song he set out to direct those visuals into a treatment.
“I wanted to show a man living in isolation, burying something, eulogizing it with a song, and leaving that life behind forever,” Krief shared.
The song itself is a deeply personal track that explores love, death, and new life. “Venus” is the final track of Krief’s collection of love songs culminating during the honeymoon phase of his marriage. In contrast, this song outlines his struggle with both the loss of loved ones and the death of previous relationships. Krief goes on to compare death to a new life with the idea of becoming a father.
“A sense of urgency came over me to let go of a lot of habits and thought patterns and embrace letting go,” said Krief. “I challenged the idea of being able to go on living in the face of extreme loss.”
A key theme of this song is the anxiety that is involved with the topics covered in his lyrics. As someone who admittedly struggles with anxiety and depression, Krief delves into his double-anxiety of dealing with those elements.
“The lyrics tell a lot of that story, but the emotion of the entire piece was something I felt resonate through my entire body recording the guitar solo, which was done in one improvised take,” Kreif shared. “It’s sloppy and flawed, but I kept it because it really captured a moment.”
Casting Director, Bruno Rosato, helped push him in the direction of his cinematographic dreams via Instagram message. Rosato reached out to Krief after hearing his work on the radio and expressed that he wanted to see better visuals for his music. He connected Krief with Kate Yablunovsky, who helped edit and bring this project to life. Yablunovsky went on to direct videos for “Tonight” and “Idols” from that same album.
Krief’s Director of Photography for the project, Gabriel Ng, suggested the video setting they used outside of Vegas, and the song visually came together from there. With the help of visionaries in the film industry, Krief was able to bring the emotional resonance of “Venus” to life is a brilliant way.
“I’m quite happy with the video,” admitted Krief. “Of course, nothing can ever appear the way it does in your mind, but I’m proud of this first effort of mine as a director, and it’s empowered me to do more of this type of work moving forward.”
Watch the exclusive video premiere of Krief’s “Venus” here.
