I am thrilled (and frankly, shocked) to announce the music video for my latest single, “Never the Same,” has been selected for the JXN Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film industry events in my home state of Mississippi.
As I sit here in awe and gratitude, I’m reminded of all the unexpected turns along the decades-long, unconventional path that led to this honor.
Almost as far back as I can remember, I have loved two things: music and film. I had dreamed of working as some type of entertainment industry creative as early as three years old, long before I even knew the terms “entertainment,” “industry,” or “creative.” At 17, I began making a serious effort at songwriting. That same year, I outlined my college-career path: I would pursue a media degree and become a screenwriter/director.
When I proudly announced my plans to my father and then-girlfriend/now-wife, both independently had the same reaction: “Okay. But what can you actually do with that degree?”
Their concern and skepticism were warranted. Considering my half-million-dollar-a-year medical condition known as hemophilia, a career path from media student to the next Spielberg was impractical at best. So, I shifted to a more reasonable field, with plans to make music “on the side” and, maybe one day, produce some kind of film.
After experiencing many twists in the plot of my life over the ensuing nine years, I entered 2015 about four years into a genuine music career, with some degree of success. At this time, I turned my attention to the other of my first loves: film, completing my first screenplay, a musical drama based on some of my own experiences as a professional musician.
To help me shoot the movie, I enlisted a couple of local aspiring-entertainer youths, including a baby-faced Kyle Graves, who was just learning to play guitar at the time. We never shot a frame of film, however, and I shelved the idea for later, working on the story and adding songs to the soundtrack in my head over the next few years, with occurrences in my real life oddly mirroring or improving on events in the story.
Fast forward to 2020, and the term “social distancing” was plastered everywhere. I now knew the final name for this long-gestating story and soundtrack about a reclusive musician: The Social Distance. I proceeded with plans to produce a concept album under that title.
The next year, I lost, five months apart, my father and one of my uncles, the greatest and most personally influential men I knew. At the beginning of 2022, still dealing with the weight of unimaginable grief, I picked up my guitar and began playing a slow, sad tune that didn’t exist before. As I began trying to put words to the music, it became clear that this was to be a mourning song and the closing track to the album. As I wrote the lyrics, every time I arrived atwhat should have been the end of the second verse, I was forced to stop by overwhelming tears. Eventually, I realized that was the lyric that belonged in the spot: “Can’t even make it through this song / Without breaking down”
Two years later, as I began final tracking for the album, I lost, five days apart, two of my other uncles, another pair of great men, and “Never the Same” became as personally poignant as ever. The album, song, and music video would be dedicated to the memory of those four gentlemen who were no longer with us.
To shoot the music videos for “Never the Same” and the other single, “Outlived My Life” (the first music videos I had ever produced), I once again enlisted Kyle Graves, by that point an award-winning singer/songwriter with a recently launched media production company.
With me directing and Kyle serving as cinematographer, we shot “Never the Same” primarily on my parents’ place in the lush trees and fields of beautiful Jayess, Mississippi.
At the time, most of the sprawling acreage remained unchanged since my father had left. Two weeks after we shot most of the footage, however, a tornado devastated the pine trees used prominently in the video. A timber crew subsequently cleared the rest. The landscape is now unrecognizable — never the same — but the place as my daddy left it will live on for a long time to come on screen. And that is one of the powers of film.
“Outlived My Life,” which I had been working on for 20 years by itself, went on to earn a couple of 2025 Josie Music Award video nominations, while “Never the Same” earned a couple of its own nominations from the International Singer/Songwriters Association before its JXN selection. As for the festival, it is scheduled to be held July 26–31, at multiple locations in the Jackson, Mississippi, area, with the closing awards show set for the Neilson Auditorium.
I’m reminded of comedian and fellow Mississippian Jerry Clower, who quipped that, while enjoying a career as a fertilizer salesman, he had “backed into show business.” Well, I suppose, while muddling through a career as an indie musician, I’ve “backed into film business.”
Although I’m not sure if I’ll ever make the feature film version of The Social Distance that I want (or any feature-length project for that matter), I hope to continue filmmaking in some capacity. But if not, being blessed to dabble in this side of the arts and having my efforts recognized by industry professionals is a lifelong dream come true for which I thank God and do not take for granted.
Cole Powell is an arts and media commentator and award-winning singer/songwriter from Jayess, Mississippi, USA, with degrees in computer technology, liberal arts, and theology. Host Random Reactions, Words Like That, and Film Nerd by Night. https://colepowell.net