Ahead of her headline show in Sydney this Saturday, Sydney-based, Papau New Guinea-born future soul artist Ngaiire today shares the stunning accompanying visuals for her new single ‘Closer’. Co-written by Japanese Wallpaper and Jack Grace and premiered via triple j, the track is taken from her forthcoming album 3 out Friday 27 August via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control Records for AUNZ and Majestic Casual for the rest of the world.
Described by Ngaiire as her “sweaty 80’s summer love song”, ‘Closer’ is centred around how she observed and understood love, sex and dating as a young girl growing up in post-colonial Papua New Guinea. Ngaiire describes, “It’s about that desperation of lust and love that grows out of your secret fantasies for another and the silent afterthought of whether it’s wise to fall that hard because it might be short lived. That level of unbridled want for someone coupled with religious guilt, heartbreak and the human need to have love reciprocated was a mean cocktail of emotions that I came to know quite well, even as a spectator.”
The accompanying video was directed by Adam Kiers and creative-directed by Ngaiire – she shares, “When I brought the project to Adam Kiers, I’d already worked on the concept for about 2 months prior, starting first with painting the single cover then extracting the aesthetic from that. I’d presented him with a pretty elaborate story board complete with a full arsenal of costume designs, hair and makeup briefs and as much info as I could throw at him. I essentially wanted to create my own mini cult film with a limited budget which gave everyone on the team multiple heart attacks.”
Ngaiire continues, “The whole story concept revolves around two lovers (Tongan/Australian choreographer Sela Vai and her real life partner Mark Turner) who are a part of a cult who must abstain from any kind of affection, lust, love, sex to uphold age old beliefs. Their cover is blown and they are punished. The cult represents uniformity, culture, religion, ideology with the angular choreography further meant to reflect the militant and sometimes absurd ways in which we choose to move as groups of people. The lovers represent the yearning to live outside of the boxes but unable to because of the perimeters that are there. I am merely a story teller within the story which Adam opted to have me dropped in a bit later as to not be the entire focal point of the story which I think works well especially since I had initially toyed with the idea of not being in it at all. I also serve to represent a choice made to be loud and proud against the backdrop of what society wants to dictate to me what I should act like – which is not a multi-faceted black woman.”
