- Words Notion Staff
- Photography Sound Bites Studios
- Styling Millie Cullum
- Makeup Rebecca Hampson
- Production Featherside Films
- Crew Fuoco Balduzzi, Devorah Corona & Samira Oberberg
Joe Turner and BEKA give Notion an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse at their new music video for "Shade".
Leaning on lush, layered instrumentals and crisp vocals, Joe Turner pulls out all the stops with singles such as “Too Much”, “Noir” (featuring Tom Dunne), and “Wings”. To celebrate his musing EP ‘Reflections’ – out now – the London producer has invited Notion behind the scenes of the new video for sleek club single “Shade”, featuring BEKA.
Speaking on the new single, Turner has said: “’Shade’ for me is a song that completely captures my feelings towards being free again after the last 15 months. I spoke with BEKA about when life would resume going back to normal, and the idea of moving out of the shade into the light – then BEKA came up with her incredible vocals and lyrics based around this concept. I couldn’t be happier to have a future star like BEKA on one of my tracks. Not only is she an incredible talent, she’s also a good friend of mine and there’s no better feeling than releasing music with your mates!”
On the video, he said: “Shooting the video for ‘Shade’ with BEKA was so much fun! After numerous writing sessions online it was great for us to meet in person and see our vision come to life with this song. I can’t wait to work with BEKA in the future, she’s a star in the making!
We wanted to try and create a visual that echoed the messages in ‘Shade’ and across my new EP ‘Reflections.’ The last year has felt like we have all been lost in a dark void, with no real signs of us coming back into the light of ordinary life. However, in the video, we wanted the narrative to progress so that both BEKA and I were reunited to symbolise society coming out of the ‘shade’ and into full colour once again. In addition to this, we wanted to incorporate mirrors into the video to coincide with the EP title (Reflections).
I’d like to give a big shoutout to Harry and the team at Featherside Films for embracing our vision and helping it come to life!”
BEKA adds “Joe had spoken about his journey producing ‘Shade’ and part of the visual he’d imagined was that iconic feeling of a summer’s day and so I wanted to write something that reflected the visceral feeling the visual carried. We were writing together in the pandemic and so life feeling a little grey and hard and monotonous felt very real. I wanted to capture that feeling that a little spark of hope and colour gives, when it pierces through the situation you’re in and gives you the space to inhale and feel lighter, must like sun after days of grey. Shade is about those little sparks that we need to feel lighter, let ourselves hope a little and shake off the grey.”
On the music video, BEKA said: “Joe and I had already formed an amazing friendship through writing together on Zoom, so to get to spend a day shooting a song that we’d wrote together was crazy fun. Joe is super warm and a lovely human so it felt great to see him do what he does best on set.”
The video sees collaborator and vocalist BEKA in head-to-toe glitz – taking a blue spotlight – while Turner jives on instrumentals – immersed in a raspberry shade.
Hailed as one to watch by Jamz Supernova and Chris Hawkins from 6Music, BBC Radio 1’s Sian Eleri and Jack Saunders’ Future Artists, Turner is rearing to return to live performances again. In the wake of his debut headline show at The Cause in London with support from Tibasko, he will also be opening for Submotion Orchestra at the O2 Institute3 in Birmingham this October, and DJing at Dalston Roof Park in August.
With performances aplenty to look forward to and a brand new EP ‘Reflections’ to mull over, take a sneak peek at Joe Turner’s colourful world below.
