“Life is too short so I ain’t wasting no more time,” trumpeter Shamarr Allen assures loved ones in the new video for “I Love You,” a warm, sunny track dedicated to supportive families like his own.
The video for “I Love You” portrays several families of different ages and backgrounds sharing a common thread: unconditional love. The warmth and tenderness displayed in the video are both infectious and genuine. For Allen, authenticity is key. Thus, he enlisted his own family and friends over actors and actresses.
“For a song like that, I wouldn’t want to use a fake family,” Allen said. “I shoot videos all the time and I use actors and actresses all the time. But that song was from the heart, so I feel like it was important for me to use my real family as apart of the video. And every family in there is actually a real family and real friends of mine.”
Music and family have always remained inseparable for Allen. He is the first professional musician in his family, and he attributes his early interest and dedication to his father, Keith. Growing up, Allen’s father would send him and his sister to lessons and jazz camps in addition to encouraging daily practice. “When I decided that I wanted to play trumpet, my father did everything in his power to make sure that I practiced every day and had some cool teachers.” Now, Allen has assumed the role of musical parent, passing on his passion to his two sons who play the drums and trumpet.
Allen says his latest project, True Orleans, will be released in August. He says the album could have been released a year or two ago, but he felt obligated to release it for the city’s Tricentennial. Allen is no stranger to making hometown anthems, but, to him, True Orleans is a personal testament to the positive energy synonymous with New Orleans.
“To me, True Orleans is everything about New Orleans that’s really New Orleans, like real, genuine, organic New Orleans,” Allen said. “So I decided to release this video first to show that this whole CD is just based on fun and having a good time and great energy. It’s a whole album of feel-good music.”
As much as Allen loves a good time, he protests the inauthentic hedonism he feels is so prevalent in contemporary music. With True Orleans, he intends to provide a more genuine, homegrown positivity with his music, one to which everyone can relate.
“It’s so much garbage being put out right now, man, so much meaningless music,” Allen said. “I felt like I wanted to create something that had some type of substance and was fun at the same time. Basically, this whole album is just real-life situations that make you feel good. That’s all I want to do. I don’t want no type of negative energy around me.”
True Orleans will be released in August. Check out the video for “I Love You” here.
