The Artist Explains: Connor Roff - 'Soldier'
Singer-songwriter Connor Roff shares his true authentic self with new single ‘Soldier’ - a track about accepting who you are. He took a moment to talk to us about the track in more depth.
Hey there Connor, how are you? So your new track ‘Soldier’ is out now, can you tell us what the track is about?
Hi there, I'm good! At the moment, I'm busy trying to push this release and balance my yoga career here in Vancouver at the same time - it's always a balancing act. I originally wrote this track while visiting some extended family in a small and magical part of the UK called Wentnor in Shropshire. The song very much fell out of me at the time and I think epitomizes my personal experiences growing up LGBT+, self actualizing that, and arriving at a place of feeling confident and rest assured within myself.
It deals with accepting your authentic self - what advice would you give to someone searching for that part of themselves?
That's a big question haha. I don't think it's necessarily easy in today's day and age depending on so many factors - where you live, what your background is, the experiences you have growing up - in many ways, western society (and dare I say capitalism?) is consistently trying to draw us away from our true nature and into a realm of distraction, work and materialistic things. I don't mean to express that all of these things are bad or that we should completely do away with them, but I think if you really want to get back in touch with your heart, you first need to develop a much broader sense of awareness around yourself and your everyday life. There's so many tools or methods of doing so, starting with identifying what your absolute wants and needs are first. If there's one thing I've learnt through my yoga practice, taking time to step out of your mind, come back to your body and becoming the observer of your own train of thought is a powerful place to reside. One thing my philosophy teacher Sudhir Rishi taught me is that "joy is the nature of the self" and I very much believe and stand by this principle.
The track comes with a music video that was shot in one take - any behind the scenes stories from filming it that you are happy to share with us?
Yes! It was so fun to film! We rocked up on this dirt road the night we filmed and only had about an hour to get the whole thing sorted. Considering it was a one-take I only had about 5 stabs at it, so we all felt the pressure to get it sorted, but nobody was stressed and the whole film crew were fantastic. Very professional and there was a solid sense of "ok guys, we've got this, let's do it." I have to add that the director Liam Peterson from FYA Media House was so fantastic to work with, very organized and creative, he planned the whole thing to a T and I felt like I could fully trust everything in his hands.
The last moment of the video, you see me run off screen and the van has to do this immediate reverse towards the rocks and river. This was quite difficult to A) time and B) line up with the view and myself. I think there were a couple of takes where it just didn't work at all and all the props to Sydney for driving like a boss and lining everything up alongside Liam's direction. As you saw in the video, there was a lot of running and jumping in and out of the back of the Van on my end so I was pretty knackered by the end of the whole thing. Being in the middle of the mountains with no one else around added this very real and ethereal vibe to the evening. If you go on my Instagram page (@connorroffmusic), there's some lovely behind the scenes photos snapped by Sydney Bunning on his film camera the day of.
How do the visuals connect with the track?
Liam (director/producer) initially suggested the idea and I wanted to give him full creative control. I originally sent him some themes of which I wanted to incorporate and then he took it from there, suggesting we film in the mountains in the back of this van that sort of represents my character's home. The photos that were strung up inside the van are all real pictures from throughout my real life, which Liam originally asked me to source - that was quite fun and nostalgic going back in time that way. I know my parents had a blast going through old albums for me haha. Some feedback I've got from people, is that the video reminds them of an "Into the Wild" type theme and has a lot of west coast vibes, which I love. Ultimately, I don't want to say too much because it's nice to leave the interpretation of the video up to the viewer and I've really enjoyed hearing what came up for different people, but I will say that it represents my character's journey of sorts throughout the one shot ultimately residing in his self actualization and excitement of what comes next.
You recently covered ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’ by Jeff Buckley, what made you pick that song?
I love Jeff Buckley. That album Grace is an absolute classic and withstands the course of time. The variety of musical genre and emotion captured within it is insane and sends you through a loop. Originally I recorded a demo of the track at home on my keyboard and sent it to my producer James in the UK for fun. He immediately suggested we record a stripped back produced version highlighting my vocals and the piano and from there it just worked. Ironically when that song came out, I was also going through a breakup so it felt rather on the nose and appropriate.
Now your new track is out there - what's next for you?
I'm collaborating with my producer James Turner right now internationally. Throughout the pandemic, we've been sending recordings back and forth across the pond between Canada and the UK. We've got some exciting tracks lined up for release as well as one or two others I've done elsewhere. I'm just genuinely so excited to be releasing music again these days, staying creative and eventually setting up some live gigs both here in Canada and the UK as long as Covid (finger's crossed) continues to lift. That first official live gig back is going to be oh so sweet and emotional