Jesse Will recently returned from a hiatus to unveil the introspective power of the single ‘Hold My Skin’. Following this, he releases ‘Puddles’, one of his most vulnerable offerings to date. The track is emotionally precise, thematically surrounded in a metaphor that brings together human spiritual impermanence with the flow of water.
Jesse puts it poignantly, “It explores recovery and the resilience that trauma leaves us with. I was inspired by the life cycle of water, how water is evaporated, and eventually returns to where it was, yet somehow purified from the experience.”
After ‘Hold My Skin’ was nominated for Best Choreography at the 2025 London Music Video Awards, it seems wise for ‘Puddles’ video to be co-created with returning choreographer Sofia Pomeroy, the visuals unfolding over two contrasting worlds.
Jesse’s directorial debut blooms with magnificence, lead dancers Margherita Barbieri and Lochie McDougall move alongside others in a grassy orchard, each body filled with longing, tension and tenderness. The quiet intentionality of each outstretched arm, each moment collapsing to the ground, is entirely spellbinding.
Jesse himself appears alone in a blue-lit room, which seems to be an emotional holding tank, not drowning, but certainly submerged and finding his place afloat beneath the surface. The separation goes from warm and deliberate to cool and free-flowing.
No detail is accidental; the slow burn of choreography and symbolism throughout threads itself through setting and sentiment. The discomfort within the themes is sat with, accepted, but never completely left behind, inviting the audience to do the same.
In a way, the track calls for human life and emotional intelligence to follow water, to stop swimming against the current and find peace in letting yourself float, it’s almost stoic in that way. It is a wonderful expansion of Jesse’s creativity, one that cements him as a multidisciplinary artist crafting entire worlds from singular emotional moments.
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Photography: Birute Paukstyte