Public Speaking Impresses with His Minimalist Music Video for “Bring the Dead” [Premiere]

In terms of creativity and innovation, oftentimes the best results come when you’re left completely to your own devices, and there aren’t many better examples of that than the new Public Speaking music video for “Bring the Dead.” The innovation of Jason Anthony Harris, a Brooklyn-based electronic artist, the song comes from the recently released new Public Speaking album Songs Need Friends. The video features Harris dancing, singing, and expressing himself in black and white, against a simple white backdrop, with written messages flashing across the screen for the viewer to interpret in their own way.

As the first music video he has made in quite a while, and his limited budget and production means, Harris was left with nothing but himself and his own ideas to come up with a visual accompaniment to his new single. It’s not an easy task to make an interesting video with one camera against a blank backdrop, but Harris relied on his own eccentric imaginativeness, incorporating dancing and the superimposed text that addresses the near outrageousness of the situation. Harris readily acknowledges the narcissism of filming and editing yourself, or making art, while the world outside continues to spin out of control, but rather than ignore that privilege, he goes out of his way to make it apparent, while appreciating it.

Elaborating more on how the video was created, Harris told us,

“I made the music video for ‘Bring the Dead’ alone in my Brooklyn apartment with a phone and an iPad. I was interested in what I could accomplish with such minimal equipment, and I thought about the power of text in our digital lives. We talk a lot about the ocean of imagery that we’re subjected to, but the mountain of words we encounter on a daily basis is incomprehensible and dwarfing. In the video I’m trying to reconcile with all the privilege I have just to make art and the seeming futility of the whole process: the cacophony of voices. It is as if I am trying to shake and dance off all the language around me. As a queer artist, I’m drawn to the political art of Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, and they influenced this project more than I anticipated.”

Harris’ ingenuity extends far beyond this song and video. His new record Songs Need Friends is a compilation of tracks written for a Patreon project entitled I Want to Write a Song About You. As the follow-up to his early 2021 release Songs Need People, there’s an ingenious concept behind the album, with listeners having the opportunity to take an active role in the creative process. Fans were invited to fill out a questionnaire about themselves and the experiences they were going through at the time, which would be then submitted to Harris who would then write and record a song about them within 30 days. The concept obviously helps with finding inspiration and ideas for new songs, but the urgency within which Harris chose to put himself in has really brought out the best in him as a songwriter. Typically, he makes music entirely for himself, which has made writing and recording Songs Need Friends a life-changing experience that is both daring and inspiring.

Artwork for the single “Bring the Dead” by Public Speaking