Velours sheds the tattered remnants of a worn-out romance in her latest single and video Your Sweater — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“For me, the concept of the ‘sweater’ represents the physical objects we tend to cling onto after a relationship has ended, and the other person has checked out long before you have,” the Saskatoon pop singer-songwriter explains. “This idea of ‘what do you do when everything except them has been left behind’ really stood out to me; all of a sudden, these insignificant objects hold so much weight.”
The new single is the latest to land from her debut EP Identity, produced by Juno winner Ryan Stewart (Carly Rae Jepsen, Bif Naked, CARYS). Released last fall, the four-track offering has already earned her a nomination for a Saskatchewan Music Award as Rock/Pop Artist of the Year, while the premiere single Summer Haze’s video garnered a nomination for Music Video of the Year.
“I was very aware that Your Sweater was going to be very different from Summer Haze,” Velours considers. “Summer Haze was the most intimate song I wrote for Identity, and it’s meant to evoke a feeling of renewal … Your Sweater inspires a renewal all its own, but it very much takes its own direction.”
Director Dylan Hryciuk and Velours “talked a lot about my intentions for the song, and the symbolism of the sweater,” she continues. “He came up with the incredible concept of the sweater slowly falling apart throughout the entire storyline until I’m free in the end. It’s a metaphor — along with the smoking, drinking, and the tearing of the sweater — for the pain, and just immersing yourself in toxic tendencies to not even relieve the pain, but actually indulge it. The ruins you’re trapped in, and how you destroy yourself by holding onto and dwelling on something that’s gone.
“The video was shot at my grandparents’ cabin, and on the highway nearby — no green screen, just raw footage of me in the dead of winter. The last chorus is all outside, and drives home the freedom and shedding of the remaining pieces of that person who broke you. It’s really uplifting to shed the past’s pain, and start again without it. Your Sweater brings that message to life.”
Watch Your Sweater above, hear more from Velours below, and keep up with her on her website, Facebook and Instagram.
