{"id":3069,"date":"2018-11-13T13:04:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T18:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2018-11-13T23:11:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T04:11:11","slug":"video-premiere-paul-weinfield-ft-beccs-the-great-love-letter-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2018\/11\/13\/video-premiere-paul-weinfield-ft-beccs-the-great-love-letter-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Premiere \u2013 Paul Weinfield (ft. Beccs) \u201cThe Great Love Letter of This Great World\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEach of us is a single syllable\/In the great love letter of this great world.\u201d \u2013 Paul Weinfield<\/a>, \u201cThe Great Love Letter of This Great World.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This seems like a tough pill to swallow right now \u2013 unrelenting optimism. If you\u2019re paying attention to the news today, you\u2019re seeing partisan infighting, fearmongering over immigrants, and, literally, fire. So you might ask yourself how might someone write a song like Paul Weinfield\u2019s \u201cThe Great Love Letter of This Great World\u201d at this particular moment in history. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living through a very difficult time with real and serious challenges,\u201d says Weinfield, \u201cbut we\u2019re also living through a time when people fall into a kind of kneejerk apocalyptic thinking that isn\u2019t helpful. We aren\u2019t used to \u2018looking for the helpers,\u2019 as Mister Rogers said. So this song is a gentle reminder that if people take time to look for the best in each other, there\u2019s a lot of greatness to be found.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video, directed by Danny Ward with cinematography by Luke Tedaldi, addresses this friction by showing people struggling, sending messages in print expressing things they can\u2019t seem to say out loud. One woman writes on a paper airplane, \u201cFighting for your attention sucks.\u201d A note by a couple reads, \u201cEveryone is happier than we are.\u201d <\/p>\n

The song is the lead track from Weinfield\u2019s album Music Is People<\/em>, due out in December. The album featured fifteen different singers taking on Weinfield\u2019s music, including Beccs<\/a>, who is featured on this song. According to Beccs, the philosophy of the song isn\u2019t just words for Weinfield, but an embodiment of how he lives. \u201cI\u2019ve known Paul for several years now,\u201d she says, \u201cand have been absorbing the beautifully woven lessons in his lyrics, his writings, his meditation workshops, and from Paul himself who lives by example. It makes you grow an even deeper appreciation for the words in this song when you know how much Paul lives by them. It\u2019s a perfect picture of what he imbues in those around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song might reflect Weinfield\u2019s personality, but he said it wouldn\u2019t have fit his voice. It was, however, perfect for Beccs. \u201cBeccs is one of the greatest singers I\u2019ve ever worked with,\u201d he says. \u201cBut on a deeper level, there\u2019s something about her personality \u2014 a mix of vulnerability and seriousness combined with an unbreakable optimism \u2014 that seemed right for this song. My voice would have been too dark and missing the right nuances.\u201d<\/p>\n