The clip for Chelsea Jade's “Laugh It Off,” shot in and around a formidable tunnel in her hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, has everything I love in music video: hair blowing in the wind, a delightfully old-school car, and a whole lot of kookiness. It's a perfect visual companion for the Brad Hale-produced single, a minimal, nuanced pop song that captures the value of pettiness in a mourning lost love.
“I wanted to be nonchalant about this other person’s feelings, which seem designed to manipulate me,” says Chelsea. “It’s about rising above but being completely insensitive while you get there. A middle finger on the way up.” “Laugh It Off” is the first single from Personal Best, her debut album, which will release on July 20.
As for the video, she adds: “[Auckland] has a boner for the tunnel in this video. My twitter feed was awash with adoration for structure that simply improved a commute. That sense of majesty over something so mundane is exactly what I look for in a visual cue. It aligns so beautifully with how I want my songs to convey my experience, where I indulge my emotions until they crash land with a kind of mocking perspective. Director Alex Gandar and I decided we would ride this sense of absurdity by driving through the Waterview Tunnel as many times as we could before the sun came up. We barely planned beyond that and it became an exercise in improvisation. We’ve never not meticulously planned any of our many videos so it was a new risk. We left with footage of real me, a petrol headache and anecdotal evidence that yes – it is a fucking good tunnel.”
Thumbnail photo by CJ Larsen Sotelo
Personal Best is out on July 20. Pre-order it here.