The LA-based Swedish-Mexican-American producer, drummer, singer and songwriter Chloe Saavedra aka WTRGRL releases a new music video Scream today. Dreamt up during lockdown focusing on the dichotomy of pleasure and anxiety the piece is a fantasy. Lyrics trace taking refuge in her partner and what it’s like away from that. Viewers encounter WTRGRL nymph-like in the forest to the ethereal sound of her voice, who takes us on a journey in the dark soundtracked by soft echoes and searing screeching chords.
Scream is the second single out from her EP releasing June 30. The first peak into her debut solo EP DRIP1 was a self-assured sounding anthem Heroine played on Mary Anne Hobbs’ Radio 6 show. It demonstrates “the voice that I needed to hear at the time, to give me the strength that I really lacked” according to WTRGRL. Sensitive to the theme of self-doubt, the music video of Scream shows a stronger side of the artist visually whilst lyrically the contradicting feelings play out. Chloe elucidates, “It’s interesting how anxiety can closely parallel serenity and how elation can mirror terror.”
The saturated inky black backdrop that dominates the video has a horror-esque feeling, along with the inexplicable appearance of a UFO like red light that later presents itself as an orb. There is something nightmarish about a narrative so abstract. WTRGRL’s styling is ghostly and ethereal. It all matches the mainstream pop, ethereal electronica – with a sprinkling of hardcore - that plays out.
As the artist put it “Scream embraces those dichotomies [anxiety, serenity, elation and terror] sonically and lyrically by having the production go from classical piano and strings to massive bursts of erratic kick drums like the suspense and chaos of a thunderstorm.” This track is overwhelmingly beautiful, powerful and awe-inspiring like a lightening-strewn storm watched from the comfort of a warm home. Punchy and dark the video takes notes from Bram Stoker’s Dracula too. As well as Lord of the Rings, Shania Twain, and Lenny Kravitz. References are eclectic. Hybrid and sexy this is a video that is going to make its mark.
The saturated inky black backdrop that dominates the video has a horror-esque feeling, along with the inexplicable appearance of a UFO like red light that later presents itself as an orb. There is something nightmarish about a narrative so abstract. WTRGRL’s styling is ghostly and ethereal. It all matches the mainstream pop, ethereal electronica – with a sprinkling of hardcore - that plays out.
As the artist put it “Scream embraces those dichotomies [anxiety, serenity, elation and terror] sonically and lyrically by having the production go from classical piano and strings to massive bursts of erratic kick drums like the suspense and chaos of a thunderstorm.” This track is overwhelmingly beautiful, powerful and awe-inspiring like a lightening-strewn storm watched from the comfort of a warm home. Punchy and dark the video takes notes from Bram Stoker’s Dracula too. As well as Lord of the Rings, Shania Twain, and Lenny Kravitz. References are eclectic. Hybrid and sexy this is a video that is going to make its mark.