James Morrison and Nelly Furtado discuss the music video for "Broken Strings," which draws from Paris, Texas and Nicolas Roeg's Insignificance. Two characters separated by reflective glass symbolize their fractured relationship, with surreal effects like floating particles and reversed footage creating the visual atmosphere.
It's the voice of someone else.
The world tears me up. I try to hold on, but it hurts too much. I try to forgive, but it's not enough to make it all okay. You can't play on broken strings. You can't feel anything.
This is James' 9th or 10th video. And here we are on the 2nd video of the 2nd album.
This video conceptually is inspired by the film Paris, Texas. But it's basically 2 people in this otherworldly motel space. And one person, which is Nelly, is watching the other. Person, which is James, through a window where he can't see Nellie on the other side. He can only see his glass reflection, his mirror reflection, but he senses her presence.
I think it relates, you know, the fact that the two people don't actually meet and there is some kind of connection, but it's because there's a barrier, it's quite fractured. So yeah, I think that represents the song, what the song's about, you know, breakdown in relationship or not being able to kind of get used to this the idea that it might be over. That's what it's about. I mean, I didn't even know that Nelly Furtado would be up for it. It was all brand new to me, the fact that it was a duet and the track on its own is totally different to anything else on the album. So I just wanted to do something that would be unique.
[MUSIC] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [MUSIC] And intercut with that is all this abstract poetics floating particles, explosions, room on fire that reverses and then goes back to clean again, which is inspired by this amazing Nicolas Roeg movie from the 1980s called Insignificance.
I've been waiting for the fire all day, man. So I'm definitely gonna make sure I don't miss it.
The room's going up in flames, it's gonna wake us all up.
We're burning to the fire. It's gonna be really exciting. It's gonna be really visually stunning. Looks great on the monitors. Chasing the very wind. Any last words?
Peace to ya. If you're having a bad time, you'll get through it. If you're having a good time, enjoy it.
