Austra's "I Love You More Than You Love Yourself" Video is a Compassionate Portrait of an Astronaut's Depression

This post ran originally on THUMP Canada. Toronto synth-pop outfit Austra have shared a new video for "I Love You More Than Yourself," off their latest LP Future Politics, inspired by the story of former US astronaut Lisa Nowak, who made international headlines in 2007 when she was arrested and charged with the kidnapping of US Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman.

The M Blash-directed clip follows Nowak, played by bandleader Katie Stelmanis, as she wanders through the city in her NASA jumpsuit, before purchasing a gun and a wig, and ending at a strobe-lit bar.

"M and I were both fascinated by the story of Lisa Nowak but wanted to explore it through a lens of compassion. We wanted to use it to explore issues of mental health and depression, things so many of us experience, in the hope of further de-stigmatizing such conversations," said Stelmanis in a press release. "We've decided to focus the actions leading up to her final arrest, and have tried to convey what it may have been like to be her, and what she was feeling. The final chapter of her story is much less interesting to us than that."

Watch the video above and read our recent conversation with Stelmanis about the making of Future Politics.

Max Mertens is on Twitter.