With her latest video, Emily Jane Powers proves there’s more than one shade of blue when it comes to feeling sad. The Chicago-based art rocker’s clip for “Sullen Days” is an atmospheric meditation on the spectrum of emotions contained within a sullen or sad mood. The entire video was shot on an iPhone by Powers\u2019 husband, bass player, and creative collaborator Alec Jensen (Dream Version<\/a>). The couple\u2019s DIY approach and clear creative intimacy yielded a raw visual that coincides with Powers\u2019 honest songwriting.<\/p>\n

To capture the phases of sadness, the pair wanted to portray Powers as a passive vessel, experiencing, but not engaging, in the moving world around her. \u201cI think that one of the biggest themes of the video was that things were happening around me, but I was passive and still,\u201d says Powers. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to evoke an idea that there\u2019s a loss of control as well, which I think goes along with the mood I\u2019m describing.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not always easy to remain still while hanging out of a moving car, which is how the bulk of the video was filmed. \u201cThere were a few times when Alec was driving in circles and I was physically unable to hold on to the car,\u201d says Powers. This explains some of her agitated facial expressions throughout the film, but Powers also describes how the \u201csullenness\u201d she\u2019s capturing doesn\u2019t hold one distinct characteristic. \u201cTo be sullen or sad isn\u2019t just one mood, it\u2019s a range of moods that can change pretty rapidly, and the changes of the moods in the video illustrate that,\u201d says Powers.<\/p>\n

Powers\u2019 voice swells and evolves, too. Starting in a calm, hypnotic tone and spiraling into a swirl of inundated emotion, she rattles off stream-of-consciousness lyrics that hint to the depths of her psyche. She even identifies the effect her peers can unwittingly have on her feeling when she sings of\u00a0\u201ctransferred desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pretty hyper-aware of the transference of emotions when I\u2019m with people,\u201d says Powers. \u201cIf someone\u2019s sad or I\u2019m with someone that\u2019s happy, I sometimes absorb that too easily. Desire could be a bunch of different things – desire to feel better, desire to belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to empathize with Powers\u2019 weighted conscious in \u201cSullen Days,\u201d a cathartic burst of artistic expression. Watch the video below, premiering exclusively on Audiofemme.<\/p>\n