A new music video starring Matthew Wilkas is taking a hard look at body issues and self-image.
Up to this point, singer-songwriter Natti Vogel has mostly been known in the New York Indie music circuit, but now he’s trying reach out to bigger audiences with the music video for “Brown Rice.”
That said, a lot of people are focusing on the lead star of the music video, Matthew Wilkas. The star of the 2012 film Gaybe and HBO’s Looking, leads the film as man with a strong Instagram following and deals with depression and body issues.
The man tries to block out his problems by focusing on exercise, and when that doesn’t work he turns to drugs and anonymous sex (with adult film performer Tegan Zayne).
While the music video released around this time last month, it’s gained new momentum thanks to a quick interview Vogel did with HuffPost.
In the interview, Vogel shared that he hopes that Wilkas’s stardom doesn’t totally take away from the message of the video.
“I want the general audience to feel the desperation of needing to be approved of and to question the lengths they are willing to go to gain that approval at the expense of whatever it is that might make them amazing to begin with,” Vogel shared.
“I wanted everyone to be able to find themselves in this character, and question if what consumes them is leading them towards happiness,” added Director/Choreographer Eamon Foley. “Even the man who looks like he has it all with his 100K followers and free underwear feels inadequate … [Many] gay men are organizing their lives around an unachievable ideal that won’t take care of them in their old age.”
“I felt the story for years emotionally, as I think most of us gay men have, and we just had to express it artistically,” Vogel continued. “We’ve been pressured, threatened, forced, advised to do that our whole lives and it hasn’t worked ― it’s left us with a ton of anxiety and loneliness.”
We look forward to seeing more of Vogel’s work. In the meantime, you can check out the music video to “Brown Rice” below. Or, you could check out his Spotify by clicking this link.
