City and Colour – acclaimed singer, songwriter and performer Dallas Green – has released a video for the emotionally powerful track “Meant To Be”, the first new music from City and Colour since the acclaimed 2019 album A Pill For Loneliness. Directed by Michael Maxxis, the cinematic video was shot in an abandoned airport terminal in Detroit and captures the essence of the song, written while Green was processing the painful, life-changing loss of his best friend and longtime producer Karl Bareham.
“Dallas sent me the album, and when I started listening, I felt like he was there in the room with me,” describes Maxxis. “He performs with a vulnerability that I haven’t heard from him before, and the effect was a profound emotional experience similar to something you’d feel if someone was really opening up to you or experiencing intense emotions in person. Dallas’s walls are down on this album, and I wanted to capture that on film. For the ‘Meant to Be’ video I wanted to capture him unguarded and unvarnished, and I felt the best way to do that was with a beautifully shot and crafted performance video.
“Michael always has insightful things to say when he describes what he ‘sees’ when he listens to my music,” explains Green. “I knew I had made an emotional record, but the way he described his initial, visceral reaction to hearing it was so moving…to know something so emotionally connected to me elicited that kind of emotional response in someone. It was immediately apparent he got what I was going for.”
About filming the video and his and Maxxis’ long standing relationship, Green says, “I’ve worked with Michael since he directed Alexisonfire’s ‘The Northern’ in 2009. He makes things easy, he knows how I like to work, and I trust his process. He put together the most wonderful crew on a tight deadline who came together to accomplish a lot of things last minute to make it work.“
The hauntingly melodic song begins with Green’s affecting vocals slowly swelling into the impassioned refrain questioning destiny following a tragic event. In September of 2019, while the band was on a break during an Australian tour, Green received the news that Bareham had drowned off the country’s Gold Coast. While still emotionally distraught, Green was requested to identify his friend at the morgue, a chilling experience he still carries with him. As he puts it, “That was the hardest moment I’ve had in my entire life. It changed me forever.”
Writing “Meant To Be” turned out to be a much-needed pure and cathartic experience for Green. The song is a beautiful, heart-wrenching and fiery elegy that resonates deeply. Listen to “Meant To Be” HERE.
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