Rising Australian pop artist Evie Irie is facing off against a mind-bending examination of herself in the visual for her latest single “Worst Enemy,” premiering exclusively on Billboard today (May 6).
In a sprawl of extravagant set pieces and constantly shifting stimuli, Irie takes the plunge into the fray of her competing thoughts and desires to grab a hold of her truest form and ultimately pulls out a triumphant albeit bloody victory.
Just as small yet crucial flourishes lift up the production of the otherwise bare piano ballad, with the help of producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Beck), the accompanying video is full of tantalizing effects and details that invite a much deeper engagement. Directed by her “Over Him” collaborating team Reggie., the disorienting surrealism that colors the visual trip perfectly captures the song’s conflict described by Irie as “sometimes you are so lost that you actually think you’re found.”
“Usually my ideas are never the most realistic… I really wasn’t expecting anyone to understand my wild vision for ‘Worst Enemy,’” Irie tells Billboard. “It takes a very special brain to understand my mind, and that’s exactly what the Reggie. boys did.”
Perhaps aided by the personal touch of her hand-picked wardrobe gathered only a day before the shoot, the visual presents Irie’s dynamic personality with impeccable authenticity in each of the drastically different settings that she finds herself in.
“This video is how I picture this song in my brain when I listen to it,” she gushes. “It tells a story and goes through a journey, and it doesn’t make sense all the time, but somehow it still makes perfect sense.”
Though there’s no glamorizing the struggle of confronting the nastier bits of her inner psyche, Irie is beaming in the powerful final shot as she’s perched at the piano, exhausted and trembling but completely whole.
Irie expects to drop her follow-up EP to last year’s 5 Weeks In LA in the fall Republic Records.
Check out the visual for “Worst Enemy” below.
