Rising Toronto artist Joseph of Mercury, the moniker of songwriter/producer Joseph W. Salusbury, first debuted earlier this year with early cuts “Without Words,” “Young Thing” and “Find You Inside,” the title track of his forthcoming debut solo EP, out this summer.
The crooner’s deep baritone and melancholic, heart-rending synth pop is a glorious slow burn that recalls a wide range of influences, from David Bowie and Elvis Presley to Future Islands and Lower Dens.
Before the project’s recent start, Salusbury earned a bevy of songwriting and production credits, including co-writes on Majid Jordan’s “Something About You” and Illangelo’s “Your Future’s Not Mine,” as well as producing the vocals on Nelly Furtado & Blood Orange’s cassette collaboration “Hadron Collider.”
The film noir-tinged clip, shot in the desert and directed by Gemma Warren and Jackson Parrell, tracks the singer-songwriter through a series of snapshot clips that weave in and out of frame.
“As a photographer working in motion, it’s rare to have the opportunity to work on a project that ties the two worlds of cinema and stills so closely together so it was a dream to approach the video so photographically,” Warren says of the clip. “My Director of Photography Jackson and I are both really anal about compositions and this was a meditative experience given the setting.”