MUSIC VIDEO - JP Cooper - 'Closer'

Music Video for 'Closer' by JP Cooper. Short film coming soon. Starring: Nicholas Pinnock Leanne Best Connor O Flynn Written & directed by Drew Cox Produced by Odd Boy DP Charlie Goodger Edited by Drew Cox JP COOPER: "Closer is a song that I wrote when I was missing my son. I often have to spend periods of time away from home and as I'm quite new to the music industry, I'm still figuring out how to find a balance between my work life and everything else that is important to me in my life. When writing songs we only have a certain amount of time and words to be able to paint a picture and explore ideas. The beauty of film is that it gives a great opportunity to understand in greater detail the characters involved, the complexities of human relationships and of the mind. In a way it gave me an opportunity for the song to ask more questions and make more statements. When I was approached by Drew Cox (director) to make a music video for the song, we began to explore in more depth the subjects that it touched on. Very quickly it became a story about trying to get back to something you've been separated from or lost. Whether it's time, people, relationships or even your mind. One of the things that Drew highlighted was the fact that you don't often hear men opening up and talking about these things, especially if they themselves are struggling. Over the past few years I've been involved with the charity CALM (campaign against living miserably) CALM is a registered charity, which exists to prevent male suicide in the UK. Male suicide accounts for 78% of all suicides and is the single biggest cause of death in men aged 20 – 45 in England and Wales. This is a subject that Drew and I have both had personal experiences with. We thought That Closer was an amazing opportunity to draw attention to the seriousness of this issue. At this point I left the project with Drew and I really can't take credit for anything else that happened. Drew took the idea to his friend Nicholas Pinnock who is an actor.(Top Boy, Fortitude) Nicholas has also done a lot of work with charities similar to CALM and was happy to lend his amazing talent. Leanne Best (The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death,Salting the Battlefield,Ripper Street) a friend of Nicholas also got on board. Closer was filmed whilst I was in the studio so I didn't get a chance to be on set at any point. I really had no idea what to expect when I got the first draft back. All I can say is that it's an incredibly beautiful piece of film. The actors have given a greater representation of the situation than I could have ever imagined. It literally left me speechless. I can't express my gratitude towards Drew, Nicholas Leanne and little Connor O Flynn enough. They got involved in this project because they believed in it. As a breaking artist I could have never expected to have such talent on board. The performances are so raw and pure and I'm extremely proud to be a part of it."