Stephen Wilson Jr. woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for "The Beginning," then worked with director Tim Cofield to bring it to the screen. Here, accompanied by his guitar, Wilson sings about the dawn of man as well as the ever-imminent apocalypse ... and that's just the beginning of "The Beginning."

Take a look at the dramatic new video by Stephen Wilson Jr., then read our interview below the player.

What do you remember most about the shoot for this video?

Well, it was a hot but beautiful Middle Tennessee day. We shot this video during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was just Tim and I the whole time. We started in the middle of the day and ended late at night, with the fire scene. Neither of us had really seen many folks in a couple months so it was interesting seeing how we interacted but we've worked a lot together are good friends, so even in the climate of social awkwardness we were quite comfortable.

How does the video bring your song to life?

I grew up in Southern Indiana with some fundamentalist Christian upbringing and spent my childhood living in fear of the Book of Revelations' Armageddon. I pondered how mankind was to exist within the idea of some inevitable apocalypse. Oddly, the music and lyric woke me up in the middle of the night around 3 a.m. and the song touches on this obsession with mankind's demise ever since the dawn of civilization and that maybe the time we're currently in is not the end at all but perhaps only just the beginning of our potential.

It's also about origins and perhaps questioning certain paradigms with the hope of starting over. I ultimately wanted this video to reflect culture and humanity even though this song has elements unique to Christian religion because of my upbringing. I believe religion is a reflection of culture and culture a reflection of humanity. This video reflects cultures from Kenya, India, Europe, Canada, USA, etc., that Tim had shot on various locations and tries to bring to life the emotion of the lyric with a more abstract approach to film. The video also starts in black & white and turns to color midway, foreshadowing the hopefulness previously mentioned.

What message do you hope your fans take away from the video?

I want people to see the beauty in humanity that is rarely displayed in media (for the negative aspects tend to yield better ratings) and feel empowered by it and maybe leave with a sense of hope for a better tomorrow that isn't rooted and built around religious apocalypse. One that is built around the idea of the human spirit and it's ability to choose love and change and leave the end times in Revelations where it belongs as perhaps a warning more than a prophecy.

How did it feel to see the finished product for the first time?

It felt fantastic seeing the completed edit. When we were filming it was all so hypothetical and we had such limitations with the pandemic and all. We wanted it to add a new dimension to the song and be something special and I believe it does and is.

Songwriter: Stephen Wilson Jr.; Director: Tim Cofield