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Neil Friedlander Drops Music Video For ‘Totem’
- Melodrift Team
- Dec 15, 2025
- 1 min read
With “Totem,” Neil Friedlander offers a strikingly introspective yet quietly ambitious opening to The Change, translating the liminality of the Covid era into a work of luminous restraint. Living in a tiny studio where clothes hung overhead and something was always simmering on the stove, he found himself confronting solitude with equal parts vulnerability and imagination. That spirit permeates the track: the sense of humor embedded in lines like “maybe if I was a dolphin…” softens the weight of existential uncertainty.
The collaboration with Chris Camilleri gives the song a sonic openness that mirrors Friedlander’s emotional exploration. There is a comforting brightness in the production, a sense of light finding its way through the cracks. The mastering by Alex DeTurk brings clarity without erasing the warmth, allowing every lyric and instrumental layer to breathe. “Totem” becomes a bridge between introspection and uplift—an anthem rooted not in triumph, but in resilient honesty.
The music video amplifies this aesthetic, transporting Friedlander from the cramped city into a mythic woodland space where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur. The Muses, embodied through expressive choreography, seem to guide him toward a deeper sense of self. Directed and edited by Friedlander, the visual narrative feels intimate and intentional. Together, the song and its accompanying imagery present an artist in the act of transformation.
PR: Decent Music PR
