Ria Mae is getting prolific with the singles lately, equally so with the music videos thereof. The 2017 ECMA Solo Recording Of The Year winning artist has been busy this last year with her break-out single ‘Clothes Off’ reaching platinum-level sales in Canada, and recently finishing off an American/European tour with superstars Tegan & Sara. Now she’s released a dancy new video for her song ‘Bend’ before heading off on a cross-Canada tour.
The song explores the nitty-gritty back and forth of untangling from a relationship—the kind that leaves you questioning whether you’re doing the right thing or not. The kind of relationship that when it’s good it’s really really good, but when it’s bad it’s horrid. The kind of relationship that epitomizes the statement, “It’s complicated.”
“Disappear in the middle of night
Shame baby, when its good, it’s so right
I’m tired of it now, stop building all these walls
Head trip now, head trip, then we fall off..”
As the title suggests, Mae focuses on how far anyone should be willing to “bend” in a relationship to make things work, but ultimately it comes down to some hard decisions about self preservation and perseverance.
“Baby, this mistrust is contagious
I’m going crazy
Looking for something to save us
You can try and bend my heart but it won’t break
You can change my clothes, you can change my name
Break break break out of these chains
I can bend bend bend so far
But I won’t break”
The video is beautifully filmed in an impressive whirling continuous shot (or close enough that we can’t tell for certain if its not). Mae makes it look effortless as she throws herself a private warehouse dance party. The video also gets bonus points for working in subtle nods to both Minecraft and Thriller.