Taste Test: Ohtis surrender to an animal’s love in ‘Runnin’

Welcome to Taste Test, a song/video review series of SubmitHub-only gemstones

Pets can sense overwhelming darkness brewing before we may even fully realize what’s happening. The clouds curl around their nostrils and sear into the brain, triggering emotional alarms and flairs into the sky. Sam Swinson, of Americana band Ohtis, rounded out with Adam Pressley and Nate Hahn, brandishes his own pain with “Runnin,” a smoke-laced illustration of the unimaginable (originally conceived in 2011 while in rehab). Director Claes Nordwall takes cues from many of the song’s razor-sharp lyrics and built-in misery, drenching the story with a conversation on addiction and mental health, for an altogether heart-rending new visual. Lead character played by Billie Turnbull struggles against herself and the swollen redness of a drug-addled mind, first wading into the river to drown and later nearly tipping into the subway tracks. But her dog Boicy and his jovial demeanor fades in and out of her vision and prompts her to find the joy floating just inches away. “Together, we surrender to fight,” Swinson concludes on the last line, everything falling away into dusk.

“Runnin” is ripped from the band’s new project, Curve of Earth, out now.

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