A veteran of the Montreal music scene, Patrick Krief has been releasing music for nearly two decades, first as a member of The Dears then via his own projects including Black Diamond Bay and, most recently, as a solo artist.

His self-reflective song, “Eloise,” is about meeting someone at the wrong time, and looking back years later, wondering what might have been. The lyrics feel like a love letter to a long lost love, asking when the two lovers might meet again. It was partly inspired by his own parents’ love story.

My father followed my mother from Morocco to several other countries as her family moved from place to place in search of a better life. Ultimately they found a life together in Montreal in the early 60s. I imagined what it might have been like had my father lacked such persistence. And in that character, I imagined the longing he might feel for the rest of his life.

“Eloise” was created with an all-star cast: featured vocals from Erika Angell from Thus Owls, drums by Liam O’Neill from Suuns, and bass by Mishka Stein from the band Patrick Watson. The music video was filmed in Montreal’s Chinatown and features Krief‘s wife, Julie Krief, playing the titular “Eloise.”

We caught up with Patrick regarding the new video below!

1. I thought about the voyage my parents took when fleeing Morocco in the 60s, and Imagined a scenario in which they had been split apart, and left to wonder about each other later in life. This is a type of love letter song, a “when will we meet again?” 

2 and 3. because the song is written as a “love letter” I thought of different ways to portray that in a music video. My first idea was to have an animation of a carrier pigeon flying the note from Montreal to Japan.  I later had the idea that it would be a bit more transparent to have the letter be a tape recording of a song. I asked my friend Danny Smiles (top chef Canada), if I could use this restaurant’s (Auberge Willow Inn) dining room as it has a piano and a beautiful backdrop. We staged the room to look like a living room, and the idea goes: I record the song to a tape recorder, and mail the package to my estranged lover (played by my wife Julie Clermont). She walks around Chinatown Montreal listening to the song. I called upon director Evangelos Desborough to shoot and edit the footage.