EMPTY STREETS, the brooding musical project from songwriter/actor Aaron Thompson, has revealed a new video for “Pleaser,” the second single and opening track from the forthcoming Age of Regret EP, scheduled for release on August 6 via Cleopatra Records.
Equal parts contemplative, melancholic and angry, “Pleaser” gives voice to deep-seated emotions regarding disloyalty, from the earthly to the divine. “‘Pleaser is a conversation with God and simultaneously a conversation with a lover,” says Thompson. “It’s an angry realization that you’ve done your part and in return you’ve received betrayal.”
Shot in Downtown Los Angeles, the video, directed by Mike Quasar and edited by Thompson, features Thompson front and center at a church pulpit, flanked by adult film stars Jessie Lee and Kira Noir.
“Being the son of a preacher, I loved creating a bastardized church setting for this video,” Thompson says. “It’s a slick middle finger to the upbringing of my youth and at the same time a moment of self-realization—for all that I try to escape it, in many ways I’m just another lunatic on a soapbox screaming like my father.”