Video: Mini Trees, ‘Carrying On’

Britt Witt on August 5th, 2021

0

The COVID-fueled existential crises of 2020 (and beyond) plays right into the artistic aesthetic cultivated by Mini Trees, the solo project of singer-songwriter Lexi Vega, whose indie-pop songs face down the awkwardness and anxiety of being.

It was the middle of last year when Vega escaped to the desert to consider pandemic life, a trip that yielded her new single, “Carrying On.”

“Despite how in some ways life had begun to feel mundane again, there was a constant underlying fear that everything could unravel at any moment,” she says. “In a sarcastic tone, the song questions my ability to hold it all together.” And so, alongside blissful guitars, Vega’s lilting voice sings, “It haunts me that I can’t seem to be carrying on.”

The song, the follow-up to “Spring,” introduces Mini Trees’ debut album, “Always in Motion,” arriving Dept. 17 via Run for Cover Records.

Directed by India Coombs (whom you may also know as All Things Blue) and filmed by Josh Beavers (SLUGS, Family Cash), the “Carrying On” video depicts the weight of a spiraling mind and allowing a support network to help you out of it. There’s a constant sense of hope in subtle rainbow grazes, facing the old self and simply being dragged on a walkabout. Mostly located in the dilapidated shack of our psyche that’s merely held up by the help of close friends, the video ends on an eager note as Vega runs to her escape.

“I definitely don’t love videos that take themselves too seriously, so we added a little quirkiness to soften it up and make it fun,” Coombs says. “The lovely cast had to brave it in those full-length suits in 100-degree weather, but, possibly due to heat delirium, they really put everything into it. It was one of those magical days where all the parts flowed together and resulted in an even better product than we could have hoped for.”

||| Watch: The video for “Carrying On”