Los Angeles-based alternative indie rock artist Nate Smith has been writing music for nearly twenty years. Today, under the name Saint Pacific, he has released his latest video single, “Blue”—and without fail, it lures audiences in sonically, visually, and emotionally.
Directed, produced, and casted by Deb Morrison and photographed and edited by Nic Capelle, “Blue” is a David Lynch-like journey into an emotional world of 1970s design, adorned in vibrant colors, vintage TVs, unsettling characters, and trippy camera work.
The scene materializes with Smith sitting on a dusty, beige carpet in a room full of wood paneling and mind-bending wallpaper while watching different characters appear on an old TV, and immediately viewers are drawn into this perplexing — yet riveting — world.
As the video progresses, we see each character in a room of their own experiencing vastly different emotions and scenarios, but within each clip lies a palpable feeling of loneliness and despair, hence the title.
Instrumentally, the six-minute+ song is haunting; a quietly commanding guitar riff opens the track, and slow-driving drums direct it through to its heavy culmination. Smith’s soaring vocals only perpetuate the heavy feeling and ultimately dominate the song with a palpable sense of unfiltered emotion. With the desperate refrain of the line, “Stay with me tonight, I’m blue,” Smith manages to create a poignantly melancholic feeling in the hearts and minds of the audience, which persists until the very last frame of the video.
Blue, Saint Pacific’s brand new album of the same name, is “an exploration of love in various forms.” It’s a listening experience that reflects much of Smith’s own soul, and the groovy gloom of the record forges a feeling of uniqueness that is both interesting and new, paving its own way through the dynamic modern world of alternative rock.
Smith has always prioritized writing about real life experiences and approaching his work with a deep sense of honesty, and that authenticity is felt deeply in both the video single of “Blue” and the album as a whole.
