Daniel’s Tiny Desk Submission “Barefoot”

A few weeks ago, I was encouraged to submit a song to the NPR Tiny Desk songwriting competition, and in the midst of setting up the lights for the video, Stephen walks in and says, “Do you have a shoot today? It wasn't on the calendar.”

What I had intended was a single camera and light setup for a simple video, but with Stephen around, our collective and creative ADD kicked us into overdrive, making us spend the next half an hour getting lights, cameras, and audio dialed in.

I proceeded to edit and submit the video in the next couple of hours, as I had of course waited until the last day of the contest.

What we produced on the spot and on short notice was a high-quality, commercial grade music video that I’m excited to share with all the world. I’m also so inspired to do more music videos in the new studio space!

The song, “Barefoot,” was inspired by a trip we at Iron Lotus Creative took out to Oregon to shoot a video about the ocean crisis. After learning about the over-fishing and micro-plastics, I felt polluted in my body. I had to write this song in order to get clean and kindle hope for me and my family.

I hope you enjoy the video and song, and afterwards go stand barefoot in the grass, breathing in the beautiful clean air gifted to us by the trees on land and algae in the sea.

- Daniel