I recorded this cover of Wendy Matthews’ song during a dark period in my life that would significantly impact and change it forever. My cover of The Day You Went Away is dedicated to the ones you love and a celebration of life. This is dedicated to my beautiful mum who’s now an angel by my side. My cover of this beautiful song was the last song she heard as she transitioned to the other side with her family by her side.
I received a phone call from the production company during the summer holiday break advising they wanted to shoot the music video with just two days preparation and I met them on the day of shooting. I visually knew what I wanted in terms of image, locations, direction and emotions – I’m blessed that it all feel into place.
This was the very first draft that was sent back to me from the production company, I was blown away because it was absolutely perfect. I called him straight away and congratulated him, telling what a talent he was because editing is make or break for any music video. You can have the best of the best and spend a fortune but it’s how you piece it together to tell your story that takes real talent. Well done to Nicholas Pitt.
After a long day of shooting everyone thought we were done when we finished the cemetery location, however I busted everyone’s balls like the Italians do and wanted to add the last visual / location /direction to the video. I made them all drive over the bridge to one of Sydney’s many beautiful beach locations. We carried a generator, lights and projector onto the sand just to get that shot of me sitting against the wall with video footage of my family and I growing up. There was also footage of my mum’s wedding. Mum was so lucky to have experienced love and joy before she passed – her wedding day filled her with such immense happiness and it meant a lot to me to be able to include what was a wonderfully happy day for her in my video.
I was questioned about the red pants and I said trust me they will work in the filming, they gave me the thumbs up and you would be surprised with all that rushing around we did I didn’t lose a glove.
