Passenger‘s Let Her Go video shot in Sydney for $5000 hits one billion views

AS he prepares to tour Australia with a band, Passenger reveals how a music video shot in Sydney for $5000 puts him in Taylor Swift’s league.

Passenger sometimes calls Australia home. Picture: Supplied.

PASSENGER sitting in a boat on a lake in Iceland in the middle of winter sounds like a decent storyline for a music video starring the much-loved British folk musician.

But musicians have a knack for proposing the kind of twists in the story which look great on camera but really should involve a stuntman.

Twists like setting the boat on fire, as we see in Passenger’s video for Somebody’s Love, the single which introduced his latest record Young As The Morning Old As The Sea.

“I was having coffee with the director the day before and mentioned the lyrics in the second verse talk about fire so what about we set the boat on fire?” explains Mike Rosenberg, as Passenger is known on his passport.

“Then we had an insane 24 hours to find an OH & S pyro guy, a boat we could set on fire and a lake we could do it on.

“It doesn’t look too windy in the video but it was pretty blustery and I’m having to lip sync while rowing a boat on fire.

“This is a surreal business; hilarious and terrifying and enjoyable. And you get a video out of it.”

Less dangerous and much simpler is Passenger’s video for his breakthrough single Let Her Go — now a member of YouTube’s exclusive one billion views club.

The clip was shot at Sydney’s Factory Theatre in 2012 by director Dave Jensen during a soundcheck and a gig and reached the one billion mark in June this year.

It was made on a shoestring budget of $5000, a piddling amount when compared to the other videos to reach that milestone including Taylor Swift’s Blank Space and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk.

“Dave came down and shot that during soundcheck and then mixed it in with some of the gig footage,” Rosenberg says.

“What I love about that is the other videos in that billion lot are from Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, these huge budget videos by these huge iconic pop stars. I am so proud that from such humble beginnings it has gone around the world. Isn’t that cool?”

Midweek @ARIA_Official Predictions: @passengermusic to land his first #1. @TheChainsmokers to hold the Singles chart.https://t.co/wHnTaHmRdS

— The Music Network (@themusicnetwork) September 28, 2016

Rosenberg made his eighth record in Sydney and Auckland where he enjoyed beers with the owner of Roundhead Studios, one Neil Finn.

The gracious proprietor would pop in for a beer during the sessions and gave Rosenberg use of a 1950 Gibson guitar which the British singer and songwriter proclaims to be “the most amazing guitar I have ever played in my life.”

“I wished it was my guitar: I think he may have noticed if I had kept it,” he says, chuckling.

Passenger has a knack of capturing his experiences or the people he meets while busking or travelling the world in song.

But much of Young As The Morning ... sounds personal, a musician’s yearning for the other things life has to offer.

He admits he battles with the idea of swapping his wanderlust for “people and relationships”.

“It’s a great problem to have, writing so much, going on tour and coming back with another album written and doing it all over again,” he said.

“Once you have done it for as many years as I have now, what’s your life without touring and I know I am not the first musician to face this conundrum.

“As much as I love music and that’s what I have dedicated my life to, there are other things I want to put energy into like people and relationships.”

The album’s closing track is Home. A quick search and you will find more than 70 songs called Home. Rosenberg says a song about where you live is more likely to be about absence than renovating.

“I think everyone has a song called Home even if they haven’t released it; it’s that simple thing of being away from it,” he said.

Rosenberg heads back to Australia in the New Year for his next tour.

It’s a no-brainer for the man who regards the country as his second home, spending as much time busking and travelling its length and breadth as he does in the northern hemisphere.

This tour will be the first time he has performed with his band in Australia, to help fill out his sound on the bigger stages he is playing in Brisbane and Melbourne.

“I think I have spent January in Australia for the last six years. It’s a sensational time of the year to tour,” he says.

HEAR: Young As The Morning is out now

SEE: Passenger performs at Brisbane’s Riverstage, January 20, $99-$201+bf, Ticketmaster

Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, January 25, $99-$201+bf, Ticketmaster

Enmore Theatre, Sydney, January 28, From $89.90+bf, Ticketek

passengermusic.com

Originally published as Passenger‘s Let Her Go video shot in Sydney for $5000 hits one billion views