02 DEC 24
This is another one where the lyrics came together first before anything. This song is about reflection, especially on the tough moments, and embracing them as part of building our journey.
This song originated in the car, driving on backroads in December, feeling the weight of the most challenging year of my life thus far, and my daughter blissfully unaware singing Christmas songs in the back seat.
I grew up in those challenging Midwest winters and always dreamed of escaping to warming climates in my youth. It's funny how sometimes when you get what you dreamed of, you miss the element that sparked that change. That is where the lyric came from "I can't believe I miss the white. I spent running from for half of my life".
​
The title is a play on the phrase seasonal depression and how these struggles shape themselves into traditions. Getting all the negativity out in December to make way for the renewal in January. Putting our emotional baggage in boxes to be stored like our holiday decorations, "it's just one more box on the damn shelf. At least that's what I tell myself".
The nature of how the song was written made perfect sense for that to be the treatment of the video, especially with the lyrics being descriptive of a car setting.
To experiment more with our DIY approach to these videos, we took on shooting multiple angles to add diversity to the visuals. We shot 4 setups + b-roll. My daughter's favorite one was hanging out of the back window to capture me singing in the side mirror (with extreme safety of course).
​​
To me, the big payoff is the end. I can't put into words this feeling. My daughter learned a guitar part I wrote, rehearsed it, and then performed next to me, which was truly special. I'm very proud of her and most importantly she had a blast doing it.
​
God blessed us with the perfect climate for filming that day we shot. The evening sky had so much character from the right amount of clouds to the gorgeous blend of a twilight blue sky into the last warmth of the sun right before it set.