NYA Releases Her Light vs. Dark, Split-Personality Video "Love You To Death"
In the video for “Love You To Death,” it’s plain to see that NYA has it all – songs, soul, passion, and presence, as well as a dude locked up in an abandoned building. But we’ll get back to that. The bi-coastal singer/songwriter has already made waves with two stellar EPs, a pair of blink-and-you’ll-miss-em sets of classically-tinged modern pop and RnB. The vocals, arrangements, lyrics, and hooks belie her youth, sounding more like the product of a musician well past the early days of identity hunting. Her timeless style, with nods to the jazz greats of today and yesterday, is brutally honest and strikingly pure. A little bit of Winehouse, a touch of Fitzgerald. However, there is no question – it’s a voice that is all her, and all her own.
“Love You To Death” was composed by NYA, Brandon Sammons, and Kat Nielsen, and produced by Sammons. NYA puts her vocals’ resonance and range to perfect use, gently riding the octaves from sultry lows to insistent highs, as if mirroring a distressed and unpredictable mind that can’t, well, make up its mind. What’s clear here is that a relationship has withered and died, but only one party is willing to accept reality.
This light vs. dark, split-personality video was directed and produced by NYA and LA-based model and photographer Ira Chernova. NYA lounges on soft carpets dimly bathed in swirling, dappled light, she lazily dips and twirls a finger in a cocktail. At first glance, she looks like someone dealing with unrequited love the way any of us might – some reflective alone time, allowing the shock to wear off. Shots of NYA lugging a shovel and trash bags deep in the woods and torching clothing suggest otherwise. Those beautifully shot scenes of repose are far more likely the behavior and body language of an exhausted, jilted ex, whose anguish and strength are momentarily spent. Her lyrics begin to reveal themselves as the thoughts of someone who has allowed the scarier side of love to take the wheel. She is not okay.
“Love You To Death” channels those inescapable feelings of love and loss into a lush three-minute outpouring of slinky electronic ear candy. This song is an ode to the power that love has to take us to dark places. Are we watching the disturbing result of a shattered mind or the fever dream of a broken heart? Watch the video again.