Montaigne’s New Music Video Is A Powerful Call To Action On Our Climate Crisis
The video pulsates with anger, because there's a lot to be angry about.
Montaigne has just released a moving music video for ‘Ready’, the latest single off her upcoming sophomore album Complex, which ends with a call to arms for viewers to support the #SchoolStrike4Climate movement.
Directed by Nick Waterman, the video sees a set of high schoolers march and dance in frustration and anger around our current climate crisis, an issue Australia’s government remains steadfast to ignore.
Our new coal mine, Adani, is going ahead despite our nation-wide March school strike protests reaching 1.5 million attendees, a very scary UN report demanding international action, and a recent paper suggesting that human civilisation as we know it will likely crumble by 2050 if nothing changes. It’s enough to make you very angry — but Montaigne doesn’t want you to despair.
Talking to Teen Vogue, who premiered the music video, Montaigne said the song’s sense of urgency is about the need to act now to prevent catastrophe.
“To me the song is about this political moment,” she told Teen Vogue, “where humanity is starting to realise how actually cooked this planet is, that it never had to be like this, and that we have the power now to overthrow those who’ve forced us into this corner.”
In the interview, she says that her generation’s anger is “like a fuel source”, and in the video, we see that. Anger pulsates through the video, beginning with a rousing performance by slam poet Fergus Clarkson and ending on a quote from Kurt Cobain: “The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.”
Montaigne has a long history of making political statements; on social media, she’s long touted a environmental-conscious lifestyle, and in 2018, arrived at the ARIA awards with ‘Stop Adani’ on her cheeks. In 2016, the 23-year-old Sydney artist accepted an ARIA for Best Breakthrough Artist with the words ‘people over profit’ written on her chest as an act of protest agains the NSW government’s lockout laws and prioritisation of private development above the arts. We love her.
Montaigne’s second album, Complex, is out August 30. She’s embarking on a national tour in November. Watch the video below, and learn more about the SchoolStrike4Climate here.