Leading up to the release of their forthcoming EP, Passing Through (Mint 400 Records), Those Looks have dropped a music video for the title track. This is the first chance for listeners to hear this song, which will be officially released with the full EP on May 2nd, 2025.
Conceptualized and directed by the band’s drummer, Shaun Ellis, the video embodies the song’s refrain, “I’m just passing through,” as a rotating procession of people replace one another, each taking over from the last as the singer.
“I landed on this concept because it was simple—a single camera angle and lighting in a controlled environment. The minimalist, high-contrast white backgrounds remove context, leaving each subject’s face to carry the emotional weight of their portrait. Nuances in the subjects’ personalities are amplified by this technique. Yet, the absence of color and context creates a surprising continuity that unites this cast of characters as they pass through the video space. There is something simultaneously engaging and slightly uncomfortable about seeing a face staring back at you through a screen—and even more so when one face starts dissolving into another,” Ellis observes.
He goes on to say, “Art is not created in a vacuum—it comes from a scene and a community. I enjoy creating videos that spotlight those who inspire, support, and believe in us. We included lots of friends and fellow artists in the videos for “Hymnal” and “Picture” as well. Since we’re all just passing through each others’ lives, these videos give us a way to look back and see who we were in orbit with at those moments in time.”
The cast includes band members Sylvia Barrantes, Kelly Bolding, Shaun Ellis, and Randall Newman, friends and neighbors, and also a few complete strangers who happened to be passing through the gallery/coffee shop/art space where they were filming and agreed to join in on the experiment.
You can catch Those Looks live at their record release party in Hampton, NJ, on May 3rd; the Newtown Book & Record Exchange on May 9th (duo set); John & Peters in New Hope, PA, on May 17th; and at the Latvian Society in Philadelphia on May 31st.