Black Marble shares video for new single ‘Private Show’

Black Marble Private Show video still

Black Mable have shared the gorgeous video for Private Show, the 3rd single lifted from ‘Bigger Than Life,’ their forthcoming album, due out October 25 via Sacred Bones Records. 

Shot on film and directed by Ben Joyner, the vibrantly saturated video was filmed on location in Neshoba County, Mississippi and captures Chris Stewart having a singular experience amidst revelers at rodeos, horse races, concerts, amusement park rides, and carnival games while the world keeps spinning around him. As Stewart explains: “‘Private Show’ strongly reflects the themes of solitude vs. community and counterbalancing the desire for personal recognition against the feelings of safety and anonymity derived from surrendering to something bigger than oneself.  The characters of ‘Private Show’ all have a choice to make, whether to be fully themselves at the expense of their community or seek the embrace of the group at the expense of their agency.  In the end the narrator feels destined for the path of solitude yet makes an effort to find another kindred spirit for the journey.” “Private Show” is the only song on ‘Bigger Than Life’ that involves musicians other than Chris Stewart, as it features additional guitar from Emily Edrosa.

Private Show is also notable for being the first Black Marble video that Chris Stewart has ever appeared in. As he puts it: “I’ve preferred in the past not to be featured in my music videos but having set the stage in this way it felt right to metaphorically ‘show up’ for this one and lend myself to this character who feels both on the inside and outside of this world at the same time.Both I and the director grew up in the south and likely felt some of the themes from the song personally, so it was easy for me to be this person who moves through this seductive and tight knit world like a ghost.”

Director Ben Joyner has this to say: “For ‘Private Show,’ I really wanted to create something that felt alive and spontaneous. The track had this immense emotional weight to it, but also felt really fun. The goal was to craft something that reflected that feeling.” He adds, “The concept was born out of my personal relationship with an event in Mississippi called the Neshoba County Fair. It’s the nation’s largest campground fair, an abandoned southern shantytown that comes to life for one week every year at the end of July. It’s a wild and beautiful place that feels almost frozen in time. And while it’s really unique and special, it also carries some historical tension that is palpable. The music provided a rich emotional landscape to explore the place and the people that inhabit it. I loved the idea of bringing Black Marble to the fair and sort of dropping him into the middle of the spectacle”

Watch the video for Private Show directed by Ben Joyner via YouTube below. 

“Private Show” is now available as a single HERE.

Black Marble has added a full run of November tour dates in North America to support the release of ‘Bigger Than Life,’ starting with an appearance at Substance Festival in his current hometown of Los Angeles, followed by Levitation Festival in Austin, TX shortly thereafter, before ending up on the East Coast where he previously resided, including the Eisbaer Festival in Toronto and a return to NYC with a Record Release Show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. 

November tour dates

Nov 2 Los Angeles, CA Substance at the Los Angeles Theater
Nov 5 TUCSON, AZ Club Congress
Nov 7 Austin, TX Levitation at Empire Control Room
Nov 8 Oklahoma City, OK 89th Street
Nov 9 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone
Nov 10 Nashville, TN The Basement
Nov 12 Columbus, OH Ace of Cups
Nov 13 State College, PA Webster’s
Nov 14 Oberlin, OH Oberlin College
Nov 15 Toronto, ON The Garrison for Eisbaer 2019
Nov 16 Montreal, QC Bar Le Ritz
Nov 19 Hamden, CT Space Ballroom
Nov 20 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
Nov 21 Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
Nov 22 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom (Record Release Show) w/ Automatic
Nov 24 Washington, DC Black Cat