Rosegarden Funeral Party is back with a new video, and this time they’re out to conquer darkness and save the world.
The song “Once in a While” is their latest single, and though the band has not yet decided on a home for the track on any particular release, they felt compelled to release it to the public for what the song means to them as a band.
“The song is about how the weight of depression can force you down to the point of losing your grip on reality,” says singer Leah Lane, “and the emotional, mental and, sometimes, physical strength it takes to pull yourself out of that. The song is light conquering darkness and so is the video.”
In the video, it's not just the imagery that displays light conquering darkness but the actual cinematography as the resolution moves from a hazy vision of the band to becoming more and more clear as the video goes on.
The main action of the video concerns the band finding their way through death and darkness, up a narrow stairway and emerging full of love, life and, of course, crisp gothic badass-ery.
“The video for ‘Once in a While’ took inspiration from so many facets of, not only physical imagery, but also emotional metaphor,” Lane explains. “This is a video representation of the way that Rosegarden Funeral Party saves the lives of the people in the band, including myself.
“This is a video representation of the way that Rosegarden Funeral Party saves the lives of the people in the band, including myself." – Leah Lane
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“It is a rise from the ashes. It is an honest dive into the core of ourselves and a harvesting of strength.”
In many ways, the video performs the work accomplished by the song’s music. While the lyrics may lament the singer’s tendency to “lose myself once in a while” or “fall to my knees and cry,” it is the music that finally finds the light.
And it is the band’s “strength to begin again” that Erin Shea Devany of All Hallows Productions wanted to capture in the video.
“After Leah sent me the song,” Devany says, “I was immediately hooked on how deep and important the lyrics and style were.”
But it wasn’t just lyrics and style. For Devany, like so many people involved in the Dallas music scene, Rosegarden Funeral Party has taken on a life of their own as something more than a band.
“Rosegarden Funeral Party is not just a band,” she continues. “They are an entity in the music scene that emanates love and positivity when it’s rare to find. I wanted to make a video that reflected the way they all care about each other like family and are willing to go to great lengths to pull each other — and their audiences — out of the darkness.”
For all the dark imagery that remains in the video, it may be difficult for some to understand how one can simultaneously reside in darkness and rise from it. Or, as a concerned parent might put it, “How can you be happy when you listen to all this sad music?”
It is important to understand that for those who choose to look on the dark side, it is not so much about finding your way out as much as it is about finding your place in the shadows.
“We all deserve to shed our old selves and find new purpose and strength,” Devany says, “and I feel this video portrays that the best way it could have.”
It is OK to be sad. It is OK to break down. But for Rosegarden Funeral Party and the community that surrounds them, it is not OK to lose hope when there is so much light to be found in the darkness.
