Liam Payne And Alesso's Original 'Midnight' Video Took Place In Space

Liam Payne and Alesso's new tune "Midnight" is the sort of mid-tempo, easy jam that lends itself nicely to big vistas. In the self-shot music video — which the duo filmed separately throughout isolation in their respective homes — Payne takes in a rooftop vantage while Alesso hunkers down in his interior studio. It's a nice representation of the coziness the song's acoustic rhythm elicits. However needless to say, it wasn't the pair's beginning idea.


"We had a really big video suggested ... And I know it had something to do with space," Payne mentioned in a recent one-on-one interview with Alesso for MTV News. His collaborator speedily filled in the details.


"It was this whole idea about saving earth and going to space," Alesso revealed. "This song [has] a big chorus, [it's] a big, big moment in the song, so I wanted something to feel big because the chorus. I saw this visual where we're out in space and we're floating into the entire atmosphere."


Payne revealed that he'd been to a fitting ahead of the offered shoot and he'd explored a space suit, or perhaps it was a race-car driver's suit doubling as a space suit, or perhaps both. Alesso explained that the original plan was to match the boldness of the music with the boldness of cosmic exploration.


"The song is sort of like, you feel like you're floating a little, and also you have these big-stab chords," he mentioned. "So it's a big journey, the full record itself."


Of course, with artists homebound for the time being, group effort on both music and music videos has had to get more creative. The "Midnight" video — the self-shot one they ended up filming, not the big space concept – stands as a snapshot of the throughout a world pandemic: one that's still looking for bigger vistas.


"As much as we love doing those videos, it was also really nice and refreshing to do a very stripped-down music video like we did right now, where the song and the scenario we're in right now was in focus," Alesso mentioned. "We wanted to spread the message of staying home."


Payne echoed that: "Releasing in this time, it almost gave the song a second meaning. The song lyrics being about adversity and overcoming adversity in a relationship, and I just sort of think it fits right now. It's a time that we'll routinely remember."


Check out MTV News's interview with Payne and Alesso in the video above.