Nicholas Roberts
Florida’s own pop wonder Nicholas Roberts provided us with a premiere look at his video for “I Shouldn’t Feel” that was filmed in Los Angeles on the eve of his return to Orlando. We get an intimate tour of the artist’s studio apartment, the public library, cafes & other locals that saw the creation of The Rest of Our Lives through the personal video that features a frank & stark quality that allows the expressed sentiments to sink-in through a true reckoning of the self & the barriers that stand in the way of freely felt acceptance & even more.
Nicholas Roberts’ video for “I Shouldn’t Feel” brings the isolated Florida feels to the big time studio productions of Los Angeles. Feelings are put on display in manners where we focus on the features of Roberts’ face that illustrate the frank expressions from the gaze of the eyes, mouth & film overlays & lighting effects that frame Nicholas’s expressions in a series of personal statements that expand his song writing. The west coast images of contrasting elements of torch flame & the seagull soaring waters of southern California provide natural components in a video where Nicholas’s harmonic ambient hums & heart break stricken lyrical hymns find vast spaces of sanctuary & solemnity all at the same time.
Nicholas Roberts provided us with the following exclusive insights on both the single & video for “I Shouldn’t Feel”:
I spent a week in Los Angeles working on a different music video with my best friend who is a director. We decided to try and fit a second video shoot into the schedule to make the most of the time. The video for “I Shouldn’t Feel” was shot the night before I had to fly out and I was fully exhausted while we were filming. We set up curtains as a backdrop in the living room and used an old projector to project images onto me. Shots like the extreme close-ups of my eye were done with me lying on the ground and the camera a few millimeters away from my face.
I recorded the song (along with most of the album) in a tiny 200 square-foot studio apartment. “I Shouldn’t Feel” was originally written on acoustic guitar. I was forcing myself to wake up around 5am to try and write before I had to leave for work and started experimenting with synths and weird, psychedelic sounds. The final version of the song ended up a bit different than it started!
