TOVA Debuts New Music Video for Losing the Fight

“The song takes on this devil-on-your-shoulder tone. There’s a special flavor of nihilism and recklessness disguised as a syrupy sort of blissfulness. We wanted to go with the indie rock vibe because it gave us room to be sweet and upbeat, but the electric guitars allow a certain kind of growl and grunge to shine through.” -Tab

TOVA's new music video, directed by Liza Ludick (Spot the Garden Gnome), is making waves in the award circuit. The collaboration between the Californian rock duo and South African director has already won two awards and been a finalist for a third at the time of writing. They won a Gold Award for Best Music Video at the Hollywood Gold Awards. A Bronze Award for Best Music Video at the Independent Shorts Awards. They were announced as finalists in the Best Music Video category at the New York International Film Awards.

“We’re really lucky to have collaborated with Liza Ludick; she had such a precise vision about how to portray the commercial sheen and grotesque nature of this predicament. We also had an amazing art department team.” -Tab

The video was written and directed by Liza Ludick. Filming had initially been slated to happen very early in 2020, but it was delayed due to the pandemic. Liza led the team of volunteers through a grueling 19-hour shoot. Aside from Liza and Cinematographer, Dale Raad, none of the crew had been on a set before. Through precise direction and incredible dedication, they all performed remarkably well.

“I had never worked with so many people on a creative project like this before. I was blown away by the effort and dedication from our crew. It was surreal to see this song go from a musical idea between me and Tab, to a visual concept with Liza and finally fully realized with the support of over a dozen people all dedicated to the same vision. It was inspiring for me.” - Ian

TOVA consists of Tabitha Perez and Ian Campbell. They left everything behind to travel the world and make music together. Ian and Tabitha got married in January 2020, shortly before filming began for the Losing the Fight music video. Both of them have extensive backgrounds in the performing arts. Tabitha has been making music since the age of 7. Ian started out as a theater kid, but blossomed into the rock music-wizard he is today. TOVA's music is infused with all of their passion and varying musical interests, creating a unique sound. They were sick of writing love songs, so they created TOVA as a vehicle to explore their observations of humanity.

"The song is meant to highlight the behavior around consumerism, which ultimately leads to destructive outcomes (i.e. global warming). The lyrics address different attitudes around environmental disaster. There’s the kind of person who knows what’s happening but feels powerless against it (Ian’s character), and the kind of person who completely ignores it (Tab’s character)." -TOVA

Losing the Fight was released as a single on Spotify, accompanied by the music video. The band is far from done and has more tracks coming soon.

“We do the whole process from songwriting to final mastering ourselves. Self-reliance has become a cornerstone of our process.” -Ian

You can find links to all of TOVA's content here.