WATCH: Pretty Lights releases video for "We Must Go On"

A while back in school, I discovered that my most productive academic writing occurred late at night. We're talking wee hours late. At Goucher, plenty of people stay up most nights in the library until 1am or so, but none of the assignments I felt good about in my senior year were written outside the period of 200am-5:00am. Heck, it was the only time campus wouldn't offer a distraction. 

For me, dealing with philosophy and political theory (the latter being just a more focused version of the former) demanded peace and quiet. Peace and quiet allow for inspiration and concentration. With concentration, the final ingredient would be well-composed ambient grooves. That was my recipe for writing. Sometimes, I'd be typing furiously to hard-hitting rock tracks from Maserati; on other nights it'd take something a bit more steady and soulful. Whatever I chose, it had to activate me. That's how I found Pretty Lights. 

Catch the (beautiful) video and a link to downloadables, after the hop. 

Derek Vincent Smith (aka Pretty Lights) is the creator of music that motivates and moves -whether that be your mind, your body, or both is dependent on your own perspective. Pretty Lights music features carefully chosen samples of soul, hip-hop, and various other accents that can help the mind slip into peace, incite spontaneous movement, and drown out the rest of the world...even if just for a few minutes. 

"We Must Go On", the newest track available from Vincent Smith, is a shining example of Pretty Lights music at work. Setting his work apart from the rest, we also get the pleasure of a self-produced video. Music guides us through cityscapes that show us life as it is -societal filters be damned. "We Must Go On" is a canvas on which we can create all sorts of interpretations of persistence, all the while acknowledging the unknown forces which push us onwards in life. Vincent Smith, acting as more of a sage than a teacher, seems to seek only to show us how many different paths we can take, not to advise on which is the most correct. His music video is simultaneously an opportunity for reflection and a reason to keep moving. 

Feel free to enjoy whenever, but I'd call this some solid nighttime music. Happy watching/listening.

Pretty Lights - We Must Go On (official music video) from Pretty Lights Music on Vimeo.

Donate and Download via the Pretty Lights website.