RVA’s own Lobo Marino (Jameson Price and Laney Sullivan) have been providing our fair city with whimsical and spiritual ballads for years, but their new vi
RVA’s own Lobo Marino (Jameson Price and Laney Sullivan) have been providing our fair city with whimsical and spiritual ballads for years, but their new video is an absolute masterpiece and it’s got a heavy message as well.
Filmed live at Yogaville-Satchidananda Ashram (about 20 miles south of Charlottesville) by the folks at Good Day RVA, the new video doesn’t shy away from the mysticism the music channels.
The song itself, “Awake,” is yet to be released, but connects to a message Good Day RVA and Lobo Marino both feel very passionate about: the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
This Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), when completed, would run natural gas from Harrison Co., West Virginia to Greenville Co., Virginia, then down to eastern North Carolina.
Dominion Virginia Power has switched from coal-fired power stations to gas-fired power stations due to new federal clean air regulations and the new pipeline aims to make the transfer of fuel easier between states and power plants.
The pipeline would run straight through Yogaville’s land, and a pressure station, which helps move the gas through the pipe, is also proposed near by.
This creates some pretty big issues for Lobo Marino’s singer and harmonium player Laney Sullivan.
“People come specifically [to Yogaville] to be silent and meditate and breath deeply,” she said. In her eyes, The ACL pressure station would impact all three of those things. “It’s a challenge to their businesses and the work they do for the community.”
Good Day RVA agreed and the video was made as a protest against Dominion Power’s proposal.
Chris Damon & Kate Rivara of Good Day RVA travelled the state of Virginia over a period of six days where they shot Super 8mm film footage of locations that lie along the proposed route. These scenes include areas such as the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Great Dismal Swamp, national forests, and private farmland which would be directly impacted by the construction of the pipeline.
This 8mm footage was then woven into the live performance music video, noticeable for its square format and grainy texture.
The rest of the video, shot live, features Lobo Morino with Jessika Blanks & Zoe Olivia Kinney on additional strings.
“The goal of this project is to highlight the importance of conserving these national forests and waterways,” wrote Good Day RVA in a press release sent along with the video. “[We] hope to illustrate the scope and impact of extending the development of fossil fuel infrastructure.”
Yogaville has started its own initiative to support the fight against the pipeline, which accepts donations here.
Notable lyrics in the song deal specifically with the pipeline, and our role as Virginians, users of electricity, and conservators of the environment:
Will we draw our lines upon the earth
And trace the shadows of the shade?
Seeking power and dominion
If turned around then we would see that
We’re all standing in the same sunlight
Where we cannot see each other as divided
We’re all standing in the same sunlight.
Sullivan said the line about “we” drawing lines has to do with all of us taking responsibility for what happens, not just the corporations who are building the system to serve us.
“If you use electricity you’re not generating yourself, you’re a part of the conversation,” she said.
You can read more about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline here.
Check out the video below and be prepared to be moved:
