By their nature, the Winter months tend to feel loneliest, be it from the subsequent dampening of sounds after a snowfall, or simply the inescapable chill that seeps from muscle to bone to mood, or simply from selective isolationism—everyone’s mass migration indoors seeking self-preservation. Oceanator’s video for “Nowhere Nothing” exhibits a comfort found in the cold, a reconciliation with, and justification for a feeling of solitude. The opening acoustic guitar chords nod at the somber hues of the imagery to come. Shots alternate between the band’s own Elise Okusami sitting in a darkened room with her acoustic guitar, and her walking frozen city streets in search of who knows what.
It tells a story of wandering and never finding anything, the chorus bleakly, yet truthfully, reflecting, “we are nowhere, we are nothing.” The soft-strummed acoustic comes in and out of prominence, giving way to dampened guitar fills, and Okusami’s stirring voice. It’s desolate, yet tender, a comforting display of solidarity in your probable mid-season funk. That is, until the whole thing goes fully awry. The lights flicker, the bough of the lullaby broken, and the crescendoed entry of drums and full-on electric force indicate that the something that had to give, gives. The result is, though at the song’s outro and ending, a fresh start, the vastness of a clean slate in the coming Spring. Take solace.
