Edmonton writer and pop musician Jason Purcell (they/them) is back with their first musical release in over a decade, with “Ambitions,” a cover of Norwegian pop sensation Donkeyboy’s 2009 euro hit. 

The song is about the feeling of giving up on your dreams. Naturally, it evokes nostalgia for a younger, more naïve self whose dreams were so wide and when possibilities seemed endless. As we grow and mature, our dreams narrow in scope, align more with our actual abilities and the conditions of our world, but the bigger dreams and fantasies don’t leave us.

Purcell worked with Tatiana Zagorac on a video and photo set that evoked a karaoke fantasy wherein these repressed hopes and ambitions might play out. There’s an intense intimacy and at times awkwardness to the shots that conveys the feelings of unbelonging inside a dream you’ve let die.