Jack Spear

Jack Spear is a St. Louis recording artist whose work during the late 2010s combined introspective songwriting, atmospheric production, and ambitious visual storytelling. Releases including “BACKWOODSONTHEMOON” with Alex Oren, “Mood Swings” with Joseph X, “Signed in Blood,” and “In My Eyes” introduced a creative identity that treated each song as more than an isolated release—it became an opportunity to construct another mood, character, or world.

I met Jack through Keaton D. Jones while we were filming one of Alex Oren’s earliest music videos, “Ghost.” At the time, Jack, Alex, Naaja Kirkland, and Joseph X were creating together as Unique Vision Productions. They were not simply making songs independently; they were building a shared creative environment in which music, production, filmmaking, and friendship continually informed one another.

That first production became the beginning of several increasingly ambitious collaborations. In 2019, Keaton directed the video for “Mood Swings,” featuring Joseph X, while I served as Director of Photography. The production brought together Alex Oren, Naaja Kirkland, Drew Brodsky, Jake Brown, and Mike Turner, reflecting the collaborative spirit surrounding both Unique Vision and Dorm Room Entertainment.

Later that year, we created “Signed in Blood,” a surreal continuation of the world introduced in “BACKWOODSONTHEMOON.” Jack, Keaton, and Naaja developed the creative direction together, following Jack’s character through deep space, fragmented memories, and an unfamiliar planet. I served as Director of Photography alongside co-DP Chloë Schneider, with Naaja leading the lighting production. The project showed how far our ideas had progressed—from simply documenting an artist to building a connected cinematic universe around the music.

Our work continued with “In My Eyes,” produced musically by Alex Oren and directed and edited by Keaton. My role evolved again, this time serving as Executive Producer and helping support the production through Dorm Room Entertainment. The single was released in November 2019 and became another chapter in the dark, emotionally driven visual identity Jack was developing.

What made working with Jack memorable was his willingness to think beyond the immediate song. He understood that music could introduce a character, continue a narrative, or create an atmosphere that remained with the audience after the record ended. Each production gave our group permission to experiment more—with lighting, locations, narrative, performance, and the boundaries of what we could create with the resources available to us.

These photographs preserve a formative period when our interconnected group of artists and filmmakers was learning by doing. Together, we created work that was strange, emotional, imperfect, and increasingly ambitious—building entire worlds around songs while discovering the kinds of creatives we wanted to become.