Brayden Baird Pays Tribute to His Mom with “It Kills Me To See You Sick” Music Video [Premiere]

With his new single and accompanying music video, Brayden Baird doesn’t leave much to ambiguity. The singer-songwriter premieres the official music video for his latest single, “It Kills Me To See You Sick.” The song is off his latest album, Lord, Why Do You Do These Things To Me, released just last month. As you might expect from a song with this title, “It Kills Me To See You Sick” was inspired by Baird dealing with the illness of a loved one. He developed the song after he learned that his mother had eye cancer.

Starring in the video is his actual mother, who you see passionately dancing along to the song. Dealing with bad news and loss is different for everyone. People tend to have a wide range of reactions when learning of such news. This was just Baird’s reaction to learning of his mother’s condition. He poured his shock and sadness into his art and not only ended up coming up with a great song, but also something that he could share directly with his mother.

Regarding the song, Baird shares:

“When I originally wrote this song at the piano, I felt very isolated from and angry at what appeared to me as a sick, vapid world void of anything but death, decay and darkness. I learned by going through the process of sharing it with friends, performing the song live, recording it and ultimately filming the music video that even from feelings as violent as the desire to kill strangers on the street, joy can be built through community, family and love. When my mother first heard the song, she heard it as a snippet from one of The Once in a Lifetime Band’s early live shows on Instagram. I remember clearly my mother calling me the next day to say, ‘I don’t really like that song about wishing the audience would die.’

“At the time, I was too nervous to tell her it was about her and her cancer, and she had never heard the completed song until the day she came to the film studio to star in the video. What you see in this music video is not only my mother dancing to a song about her own demise, but my mother, the dancer, telling her own story for the first time to the world and to her children. What was once a helpless bark at infinity has become the image of my mother, Krisandra Still, the feminine divine immortal.”

In his songwriting and live performing endeavours, Baird is accompanied by his Once in a Lifetime Band. They wrote this new album primarily during the winter of 2023, which coincided with Baird trying to navigate one of the hardest times in his life. As many do, he found solace through music. He played a lot of guitar and found himself slowly assembling new songs. The songs didn’t all come out the same way. Some feature him simply trying to deal with the cold, hard reality of the situation. But they’re not all negative and hopeless. Some are messages of love to himself and the people in his life. His sense of humour even shows through on some tracks.

Baird fully embraces the reality of the situation, trying to get a sense of his emotions, while also trying to inspire others to get more in touch with their own feelings. In a time of chaos and uncertainty, we can cling to artists like Brayden Baird to help us maintain perspective on what’s truly important to us.

Brayden Baird ‘Once I A Lifetime’ album artwork