Copenhagen musician Blondage was once a duo, but now she's going solo. This might be a scary and vulnerable thing to do, but Blondage's passion for music endures — and is celebrated in the lead single and title track for her new I Love Music EP, out everywhere tomorrow.
The music video to "I Love Music" premieres today on PAPER, and it's a seamless collaboration between Blondage, creative partner Zille Bostinius and director Daniel Borgman. It presents the musician in scenes of restlessness in a hotel room, parallel to groups of swing-dancing couples in a small gym.
The point was to contrast isolation with a sense of a community, which music provides for Blondage. The visual, created on film, allows for surreal-looking dance scenes to seem visceral, and makes Blondage's solitary moments — pacing, tossing and turning in bed — even more powerful.
"My scene in the hotel room is a visualization of the process I went through while making this EP, where I had to find the spirit and passion within myself," she says in a statement. "I am not afraid to show the frustration and uncertainty that comes with pursuing one's dream, and wanted the imagery to reflect the true emotions behind my songs."
The song itself brims with bouncy hooks and fresh, unexpected production choices: rhythmic piano stabs here, playful chants and synths there, clever ways of rhyming "girlfriend fuck" with "people suck." On "I Love Music," Blondage claims she loves music more than you, which is both a defiant kiss-off to a distant lover and anyone who doubts her ability to carve out her own space.
"'I Love Music' is about a process of liberation and it's also a stiff middle finger to society's expectations of being a female artist over 30," she says. "Going solo at this point in my career has been a difficult transition for me. In many ways, it has felt a bit like being a teenager again, reminiscent of when it was so awkward to navigate the many choices in life and everything felt so damn fateful in a brutal world. That's the energy I wanted to shine through in the song."
Pre-save Blondage's I Love Music EP ahead of tomorrow's release, here.
Photography: Zille Bostinius