Lovejoy’s 'With Rob As My Witness': Fan Theories and Music Video Breakdown

One of the most special aspects of fan culture is the ability to consult with likeminded minds over one shared interest. Whether it be connecting with others who have the same favourite member as you (we would say ‘faves,’ but it sounds a little cringe in this context), whether they have the same favourite record, EP, release, music video, moment – anything. With fandom comes community, and with community comes theories.

And while there have been some rather… infamous theories in fan culture before, the more mundane, and the more realistic theories are truly the most fun to theorise because they actually could be true. 

The Lovejoy fandom is no different – Lovenjoyers find themselves debunking, dissecting, analysing, and investigating every little crumb Lovejoy leaves (because Lord knows, they don’t like leaving us a massive trail) whenever possible. The music video for “With Rob As My Witness” was the first tangible crumb that Lovenjoyers could sink their teeth into in a long time. While yes, there have been comments left on Reddit posts, photos uploaded to Instagram, live performances filmed – there hasn’t been something to dissect. Something that is conceptual and able to be dissected.

The music video was produced by NOIZIAC, who is also responsible for music videos for Latenight Honeymoon, Bexx, The Point and more, and had a pretty extensive cast due to its content. You can check out the music video below.

The music video itself takes place inside a fight club in which “Two fighters enter, one fighter leaves,” according to a poster shown on the walls. Two major scenes occur in the empty fight club: the first with vocalist Will Gold on his own, and the second scene occurring when the fight-club is active – panning between Gold at a poker table, an actual fight within the club, and Gold himself involved in one of the fights.

Several fans on the Lovejoy official subreddit, r/lvjy, began hypothesising quickly, breaking down what they believed to be the narrative of the music video. And it should be noted that none of these are confirmed.

Up first is the actual lyricism behind “With Rob As My Witness.” One Reddit user posed a question about the lyricism, to which Reddit user u/RebeccaReddit2010 responded with their take on the lyrics:

“I’m not convinced that Rob is a person at all!

Ok, so I might be looking too deep into this, but you know in the MV, where there’s a sign that says “Residents Only Building” (but building is crossed out to “Boxing”.) I’m thinking that the building represents the inside of Will’s mind.

I think the lyrics (and MV) suggest to me that “Rob” [is] a part of Will’s mind. That the only person (entity) that truly witnesses him is himself.

The other part of the MV that suggested this to me is when the camera shows shots of Ash, Joe, and Mark and they all have this look of “what the hell is going on?” These people are (presumably) close to Will, and even they’re confused.

TL;DR - I think Rob is Will’s own mind.

And while lyrics are subjective, and people are able to bring their own meaning to each song, lyrics from “With Rob As My Witness” like “There's no upsetting me / There's little life left in the sea bed” alongside “By a stroke of lack of focus / I'm back in your old direction / I was growing too tired of the apogee” that allude to a description of a state of mind. That description of a state of mind is furthered by the music video when we see Gold on his own.

This is further dissected by a theory posed by Reddit user u/ColdInHell, who breaks down screenshots of the music video with annotations, approaches the video from a similar standpoint. To u/ColdInHell “the multiple posters throughout the area displayed in the video appoint R.O.B. as  ‘Residents Only Boxing,’ with a crossed ‘building’ in one of them. So ROB isn’t a person, but rather some sort of group/community/place that represents Will's internal struggles. The perspective can change depending on which Will we’re seeing.”

u/ColdInHell continues to point out several other flyers posted on the walls in the music video, how they refer more to a state of mind than what’s currently happening. From there, they begin conceptualising what the track, and music video, are about, considering both the lyricism and what is presented in the music video: “So, what is WRAMW about? To me, it’s about cycles, loss and broken relationships.

“We can see that the building area displayed in the beginning and ending of the video is very similar to some sort of asylum, in which I believe Will is having hallucinations, being pushed into different scenarios, unable to leave and always losing.

“There are four “main” Wills displayed to us:

The gambler;

The fighter;

The singer;

And the real Will.”

And, the real Will is presented when he is on his own, in the dim and empty fight club, while the singer, fighter, and gambler in different shots and frames seem to represent different issues he is facing. However, we won’t spoil anymore of the theory for you, as it gets highly specific and the user u/ColdInHell deserves credit for what feels like hours of conceptualising.

And, part of u/ColdInHell’s theory links back to u/RebeccaReddit2010’s take on “With Rob As My Witness” regarding Rob being Will’s state of mind – “When it comes to the lyrics, I think he speaks directly of both the reason he’s at ROB and his inability of letting go of it, and here we get an insight of what I believe might be the relationships the music refers to - the ones responsible for sending him into this “sickness” and keeping him there in cycles that are unhealthy to all of them, even if it brings him nostalgia like some sort of drug (as referred in the beginning of the song), as well as sending him back into someone's direction [Swimming only in spite of the apathy]. The shots keep switching from the “real life” and the hallucinations, probably pointing to the memories coming to him, which can be the weakness that he mentions.

“The only witness to those delusions is, well, Rob. Both the building and the people he hallucinates.”

Genuinely, to us, the panning between Will on his own and then Will surrounded by people, almost suffocated at times, supports the idea that these characters represent different struggles he faces. So, to us, it makes us wonder if would we be delusional if we said that these theories seems pretty logical?

And with the debut album announced, there are bound to be more music videos from Lovejoy on the horizon, and fans are already theorising about them, and the album, too. With the theme of the dark single and album cover, the intense nature of the music video, there is loads to unpack, and leads fans to wonder what the record will truly be about.

In the meantime, you can keep up with Lovejoy on Instagram, TikTok, their official fan Subreddit, their  YouTube, and their vlog channel. 

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