Jonathan Currinn
Steve Grand sure knows how to surprise us and this time he went deep and dark with his new music video for the song “Disciple”. This follows up his previous music video for the song “Don’t Let The Light In“. Both tracks appear on his second studio album that he released last year, titled Not The End Of Me.
Steve Grand launched on to the music scene with his debut single “All American Boy”, that has an absolutely epic music video which certainly went viral – it’s still his most-watched music video on YouTube. He followed that up with his “Stay” single and launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowd-fund his debut album All-American Boy. The campaign became the third most-funded music project in Kickstarter’s history and became the number one most-funded music Kickstarter by a musician never affiliated with a label, at the time. Since then, he’s released cover songs, collaborated with Eli Lieb on the song “Look Away“, had his single “We Are The Night” remixed by Dave Audé, and he released a Christmas cover version of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. Last year, he dropped his sophomore album Not The End Of Me, which showcased his mentality whilst writing material for the album; we can’t wait to watch where his career takes him.
As for this song, at the time of our album review, we said: “It’s time for this male singer-songwriter to take us to church, and he sure does that with ‘Disciple’. It’s very personal to Steve Grand, with him claiming that he’s very ‘happy with how it turned out.’ It certainly stands out on the album both lyrically and vocally. On the lyric side, it’s clear he wasn’t in the best of moods when he wrote it, but it is times like these where the best songs are born – just writing and creating this song proves that he fought his demons and will continue to do so. Vocally, it is the best we’ve heard from him, it’s raw emotion from start to finish with vocal runs that just proves that this singer-songwriter deserves to be iconic within the music industry.”
The credits for the music video lists Steve Grand as the writer and co-director, whilst Arno Diem filmed, edited, and co-directed the visual. The assistant producers were Frank Vasello and Nathan Butera. The make-up stylist was Chad Hayduk, whilst Zack Zerbe and David Cox acted as production assistants and b-roll. As for the cast, Steve Grand plays himself and his inner-demonic twin, Tom Ernsting acted as the romantic lead, Reid Sinclair was Steve Grand’s body double, and the police officers in the clip were Frank Vasello and Michael Soldier.
Watch Steve Grand’s Music Video For “Disciple” Here:
The music video first premiered on PRIDE, last week, on 27 March, and focuses on inner demons that we all have and how they can affect your thoughts and actions. We watch a narrative music video where Steve Grand is found on the beach by his love-interest and is rescued by the older guy. In the bedroom, Steve Grand looks in the mirror and out steps his reflection who looks possessed – think Blumhouse’s Truth Or Dare possession. We watch them have fun before we jump into the past through a flashback, to find out how Steve Grand ended up on the beach in pain and bleeding. At the end of the flashback, we jump back to the present where Steve Grand has killed his love-interest, Tom Ernsting.
In a press release, Steve Grand said: “I wrote ‘Disciple’ at the apex of a lot of difficult things in my life happening all at once. I was really trying to work through a lot of the hurt, pain, and self-hatred that had lingered from my childhood and I was navigating a crumbling relationship that had meant the world to me. In a lot of ways, our crumbling relationship was a casualty of the war I was having between my darker, self-destructive side, and an emerging goodness that my partner had worked so hard to nurture.”
“I think we all know what it’s like to have internal conflict, regardless of the scale,” he revealed to PRIDE when they premiered the visual. “Sometimes that conflict can feel so overwhelming, that it almost feels physical. My partner at the time used to say that sometimes, in the moments where I was really struggling internally, he felt like he was witnessing one person split off into two. That has always stuck with me, so I wanted to give some voice to the way I imagined it was for him in those difficult moments.”
“Disciple” can be found on Steve Grand’s second studio album. He is set to perform in a string of shows in Provincetown at The Art House.
