Following the Great Musical Rapture of 2016, there has been a Bowie shaped hole in our hearts. Like a bunch of lost orphans, we have been left searching, asking any lanky Englishmen we come across, “Are you my Ziggy?” and making inevitable comparisons. While Jont & The Infinite Possibility deserve to be distinct in their own right, their themes of reinvention and redemption strike a familiar chord. Their new video for ‘An Old Innocence’ feels like the next progression in an on going conversation.
“From my point of view, this song probably marks the deepest territory my work has gone. It’s one of my favourite songs. If you investigate the lyrics you can see why,” says Jont.
‘An Old Innocence’ is the title track from Jont & The Infinite Possibility’s most recent album, released earlier this year. The song addresses Jont’s ongoing saga perhaps more directly than we’re used to seeing. It’s the ongoing real-life tale of a rock star coming to terms with his place in the world while balancing the more grounded aspects of his life.
“It’s a huge epiphany. There is a facing up to the darkness and then with that surrender to exactly what is there, the giving up of hope—as Pema Chodron calls it. Bang, the epiphany comes and it is bigger and more beautiful and more clear than you could ever imagine.”
Jont says that the song particularly relates to his experience relocating to Halifax. Jont discovered he had a new home on Canada’s east coast, and a daughter, a couple of years ago after spending years of life on the road. Settling down into the role proved to be a challenge for the rock star, though a rewarding one.
“It’s a total Halifax song….culled from the dim, harsh winter of 2013/14 as I struggled to adapt to my new life here in Halifax. It is a song that observes the transition from despair to humility and, finally, to wonder, [with] Jacques Mindreau’s climactic string arrangement conveying the sweetness of this unasked for and unexpected fruit.”
The video was directed by English filmmaker Frederick Kelly and shot by Barny Crocker. Kelly says that he intended for the video to explore the notion of innocence through ideas of re-birth and regeneration—not entirely unlike Bowie’s ‘Lazarus’.
“At a time when we all feel increasingly alienated, this winter release mediates introspection, providing an opportunity to reconnect at a slower, more meaningful pace,” says Kelly.