Jake Miller’s latest music video not only has him shining a light on an important cause, but also honoring his late friend.
The singer just released the video for his song “Sunshine,” a tribute to his close childhood friend Dylan Andrew Schopp, who died by suicide on February 12, 2015.
“I was in the studio in LA. and I got the phone call that he had passed away and I was so completely distraught over it,” Jake told us. “I went straight home, grabbed my guitar, went outside and wrote the whole song from start to finish, and the next day I got into the studio and recorded it.”
At first Jake was unsure with what to do with “Sunshine” — titled after Dylan’s nickname, given to him by his wrestling coach because “he was always smiling and always happy” — but after talking with Dylan’s parents, they agreed it should be released (it’s featured on his Rumors EP) to help spread a positive message.
Jake contacted all of his friends to join Dylan’s family in the music video, which was shot in their Florida hometown and intercut with personal videos of Dylan. His life was celebrated with lanterns released into the sunset.
The video comes at an important time, as it is National Suicide Prevention Week. Jake has teamed up with the Jed Foundation’s Love is Louder and MTV to bring light to this extremely important issue, hoping the video raises awareness for not just those battling similar issues as Dylan, but also the people that care about them.
“I want you to take away from this video and from the song that things will always get better, you never have to end your life,” Jake said. “There are so many people that care about you and will be affected by that decision. I think if Dylan knew how many people would be affected by what he did, I’m not sure if he still would have done it. I hope he wouldn’t have done it.”
He continued, “If you’re watching this video and listening to the song and you aren’t going through what Dylan was going through, then I would say take away that you never know what someone else is going through. Because from an outsider looking at Dylan, he was the most normal kid ever, you would have never thought anything like this would happen to him and that he was battling this war in his head, so just always be cognizant of being nice to people.”
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Story originally appeared on MTV News on September 9th, 2015 written by christina garibaldi.