Stop & Stare by Michaela Jenke – Video Premiere

Hailing from South Australia, singer-songwriter Michaela Jenke has released her first original work in four years. Stop & Stare is filled with plenty of guitar, stomp, and attitude, and Countrytown has your first look at the music video in this exclusive premiere!

Produced by Melbourne outlaw alt-country artist and producer, Gareth Leach at The Shack Recording Studio in Deniliquin, Stop & Stare is a strong self-empowerment song penned by Michaela, about tuning out the negativity of the crazy world in which we live, owning exactly who you are and embracing it. 

Backed by a powerhouse band of country performers, including Reid Sampson (electric guitar), Hamish Davidson (fiddle), Shane McGrath (bass), Anthony McCormack (banjo) and Gareth Leach (drums), the music video was directed by Jade Robinson and filmed with the help of Tye Jackson, on location at the iconic Deni Ute Muster site. International circus performer Aleisha Manion also helped bring the video to life with her spectacular fire twirling featured in the clip.

Michaela says, “Walking into a barren dustbowl just like a deserted circus was the theme we based the clip around. It’s almost like turning up to a show where there was no audience, but rockin’ out and doing what you do anyway. I wanted to kick the dust up and bring an energetic atmosphere to the clip and couldn’t think of a better place to do that than at the Deni Ute Muster site! It needed to be big. It needed to have fire, literally!”

Michaela’s debut EP, Diamonds Outta Dirt (2017) was recorded and produced by one of Australia’s most respected musicians, Bill Chambers. Since then, she's caught the eye of numerous big names in the country music scene, having performed with and supported artists, including Catherine Britt, Adam Harvey, Amber Lawrence, Andrew Swift and more.

Furthermore, the 2017 CMAA Senior Academy of Country Music graduate also won the 2018 Tamworth CMF Coca-Cola ‘Battle of The New Stars’, and hosted her own radio program Counter Country, on her local community radio station from 2018-2020. May 2020 saw her team up with Leach for the release of their duet collaboration, My Crime, which debuted at #3 on the iTunes Country Chart.

Watch the video below!

To keep up to date with Michaela Jenke, follow her on Facebook here.

For more premieres on CountryTown, check out here.

Image: Provided