Written By: Big C
Earlier this month, Alesso launched a VIP mix of Chasing Stars, a high-powered model that lets his progressive-house sensibilities shine to full effect. Now the GRAMMY-nominated producer and dance artist Alesso and Marshmello share the stripped version of their latest single Chasing Stars (Stripped) feat. James Bay. The video premiered alongside a video that reimagines surreal with its vintage VHS-obsessed visual. With Bay’s soulful vocals and impassioned guitar work serving as its sole instrumentation, the end result is a riffing but charming rendition which intensifies the track’s temper of gentle nostalgia. Built on a breathtakingly intimate overall performance from Bay, Chasing Stars marks a daring departure from the unique track’s epic collision of using beats, hovering synth lines, and heart-stopping drops.
Directed through Jake Jelicich, the video places a top notch spin on the authentic visuals. While the Chasing Stars video shows Bay working the counter at a video store and noticed him transported into a mysterious alternate universe. The new world is wildly different, however, equally dreamlike setting to match Bay's vocals. To that end, the video unfolds as Bay strums his guitar and sings at the side of the ocean shore, leaning towards that identical video-store counter and surrounded by way of a pair of cabinets stacked excessive with VHS tapes. With his toes submerged in the ocean, Bay provides a quietly spellbinding overall performance echoing off the sound of gently crashing waves. In a callback to the original, a range of cleverly cameo stylized posters bearing photographs of Alesso and Marshmello float in the background. Take a look at the official video below.