Coming alongside the recent release of their deluxe album, HUMAN, Mosaic MSC delivers an intimate, stripped back version of their song “Not Going Back,” with a video that captures the hope and peace woven through the group’s lyrical and sonic style.
Videos by American Songwriter
Aaron McManus, creative director for Mosaic who worked as the video director and creative lead for the project, told American Songwriter the visual components of the video were meant to aid the message of the track in representing an emotionally safe space between individuals and God.
“We knew we needed to be in the city for this shoot,” McManus explains. “We initially had other plans for location but when it came down to achieving what we needed to achieve this made the most sense. I feel this concept really fit the space we were in emotionally in relationship to the last nine months being stuck mostly inside during 2020. Most of us are city kids or kids who have chosen to live in the city. There is something inside all of us calling us to the wild. So we brought nature to us and it reflected our minds quite well, concrete kids surrounded by nature. The goal to properly represent the overgrowth in our souls.”
“Not Going Back,” speaks to choosing a life with Jesus, the beauty of the home that relationship creates, and never returning to the time before that reality. McManus noted the video visually captures that heart attitude.
“We are sensory people. If we could find a way to help you taste the song we would. I think this one probably tastes like something from the garden, something fresh,” McManus says. “I don’t know if I looked at any of the shots, we knew the emotion we were trying to achieve and we trusted that what was captured would reflect the moment. Kind of like a garden, you eat what you grow and it’s wonderful.”
“I could never tell you what to feel, only what I felt,” McManus continues, describing his reactions to the different shots of the video. “I cried, almost everyone in the room did that day. It was like we had a shared memory of peace and calm in an anxious and heavy year of chaos.”
The track reminds individuals of who they are before 2020 even happened, according to McManus. But as the months pass, people change, and though the growth is difficult, a new life always comes on the other side and even as the process unfolds.
“We aren’t those people anymore and I think we left it on set that day. We are something new,” McManus says. “I think it says it in the title of the song, we are not going back as much as we might like to.”
Although McManus noted the actual visual elements of the video are singular, most likely not to be repeated, there is still confidence that each moment of artistic creation lands exactly where it is needed at that particular time, and such is the case with “Not Going Back.”
