Robert Earl Thomas, guitarist of the acclaimed Brooklyn band Widowspeak, will release his solo debut Another Age on February 16 via Captured Tracks. Today, he shares an evocative video for album track “What Am I Gonna Do.” The delicate piece sees Thomas wandering around rainy New York City, a setting as beautifully dismal as the song’s strikingly personal subject.
Thomas explains, “’What Am I Gonna Do’ is more about an era of my life than any particular relationship, although some really concrete endings had me scrambling during that time. I was sort of lost without any obvious sense of self, either as a lover or as the person I thought I moved to New York to become. The song’s central question still dogs me, but what am I gonna do? I mean everyone has those moments of doubt. For the video, it made sense to shoot in lower Manhattan because a lot of those memories are set against that part of the city; and to do it with Otium who has been a friend since I was that other me.”

The director, Otium elaborates, “Reuniting with a past lover is like wandering around in the rain. Maybe you take respite under a bridge, or go inside, shake it off, get dry, or maybe you just say fuck it and get soaked. Did he give into the rain that seems to follow him like the scratches on film stock or does he go inside and enjoy a nice deli sandwich by himself?”
Listeners can expect this kind of expertly expressed, dreamy emotion in the full-length to come.