Songwriter/Producer JXST J (James Pratley Watson) has shared a new single and an accompanying video “Threw It All Away.” The bouncy but wistful track explores lingering feelings and nostalgia for a faded relationship.
Watson merges his deeply personal sonic voice with a visual literacy that lends itself to a lo-fi, arthouse aesthetic.
The colorful retro-tinged video was self-directed with additional cinematography from Roman Koval. and was shot between Malibu and NYC, depicting two lost souls separated by distance and unrequited love. JXST J stands on a beach holding a translucent pink fabric.
“I wanted the pink sheet to be a metaphor for love, something delicate and capricious that could fly away at any moment,” he notes.
Meanwhile, his counterpart, played by Jo Rosenthal, floats among the blinding lights of NYC, caught in a trance of nostalgia and self-reflection.
When it comes to the meaning behind the song, Watson comments “’Threw It All Away’ is like a letter that you write to an estranged friend but don’t send. Maybe an old friend or lover has lost their way somehow – they’ve taken a job they don’t like, settled with a partner that doesn’t treat them right, they start shutting off from the world and it’s hard to understand. There’s a lot you wanted to say and a lot of questions you wanted to ask, but ultimately you’re only left to guess what happened. I wanted the track to have this sunny feeling with an underlying tension because that’s how nostalgia feels to me – there’s a sweet warmth to all the memories, but there’s also the pain of knowing things can’t go back to how they were.”
The track can be listened to on Spotify.
