- 2018-08-13
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Passenger Premieres New Music Video for “To Be Free”
Brighton-based singer-songwriter Mike Rosenberg, aka Passenger will release his ninth studio album "Runaway" on August 31, 2018.
The album was preceded by five singles "Hell or High Water", "Why Can't I Change", "Runaway" ,"Heart to Love" and “To Be Free”.
On August 9th, he dropped a new music video for “To Be Free”.
The song was written about his family's roots. The video was filmed in New Jersey, featuring a dancer Emily.
The album "Runaway" is available to pre-order now here
He is currently touring in Europe through to September 30th. Followed by, North American tour kicks off at Cannery Ballroom in Nashville on October 13th.
Learn more about tour dates, click here.- Mike Rosenberg wrote about the song on Facebook;
"We have a really special song and video for you today - special for me at least …. For a number of reasons ….
The song is called “to be free” and it tells the story of my dad and his family .
Ziggy (my grandad) was German and Molly (my grandmother) was polish .
They were both jewish and living in Germany when the second world war was about to begin .
Luckily they managed to escape to a refugee camp in France where they spent the duration of the war .
Once the war was over they , like so many other jewish refugees , left Europe for America .
They ended up running a chicken farm in New Jersey in a town called Vineland which is where my dad and his siblings grew up . Needless to say with very little money and so much trauma it was an extremely difficult childhood for them .
My dad left Vineland as a teenager and went on to travel the world before finally ending up in England .
As I was growing up I heard snippets about their ordeal although understandably it wasn’t something that people wanted to talk about in any detail . Over the years I’ve pieced together a rough idea of what they went through and just how appalling and terribly sad the whole thing was .
Its something that I never thought I’d write a song about . Its such a delicate story that subconsciously I feel I’ve always steered clear of telling it .
However , whilst on holiday towards the end of last year I picked up my guitar and started playing . These lyrics came to me and all of a sudden I realised what song I was writing .
Im not ashamed to say that I wrote and sang and cried as the song tumbled out of me . I’ve never had an experience like it . It came from such a deep place and it was a bizarre feeling to be pulling it out and putting it in to a song .
For the video , it felt only write that we go back to New Jersey to film it .
We chose a little beach town called Avalon . Its a place that I went to many times as I was growing up as my aunt and uncle owned a little beach house there . I hadn’t been there in over ten years and honestly I didn’t have much of an idea of what the video should be - I just felt like it was the right place .
A few days before filming it we were in New York and hanging out with Emily - a friend of Jarrad Seng Photography who happens to be a world class ballet dancer (as you will see) we told her our plans (or lack there of) and she unbelievably kindly offered to choreograph something . I can’t thank her enough . Not only did she give up her time , drive over to Avalon and dance on a freezing cold beach for hours but she managed to portray such beauty and somehow capture the essence of the song perfectly . An unbelievable talent and a kindness that I will never forget . Thank you Emily xxx
I’d like to dedicate this song and video to anybody who has gone through or is going through a similar situation . For anyone that has been displaced . For anyone living in a new country , learning new customs and language .
America , like so many other countries , was built on immigration . Never has it been so important to remember and celebrate this fact .
Thank you for your time and I really hope you enjoy the video . " - source : Facebook
