Sydney-based, Papau New Guinea-born future soul artist Ngaiire has delivered the beautifully composed accompanying visuals for her new single ‘Closer’.
The track, co-written by Japanese Wallpaper and Jack Grace, comes ahead of her upcoming album, 3, via Dot Dash Recordings/Remote Control Records for AU/NZ, as well as Majestic Casual.
With Ngaiire describing the forthcoming album as a “collection of love letters to 3 entities – myself, my country and those I love both here and now departed,” ‘Closer’ is a “sweaty 80’s summer love song” centred around how she observed and understood love, sex and dating as a young girl growing up in post-colonial Papua New Guinea.
“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,” Ngaiire says on ‘Closer’. “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.”
Filmed on the land of the Eora Nation of the Garigal People, the video was directed by Adam Kiers and creative-directed by Ngaiire – best described as a “mini cult film with a limited budget”. Featuring all the theatrics of costume design, hair and makeup, paired with the emotion-evoking choreography juxtaposed with the serenity of the natural environment – the video is the perfect storm in which to tell its story.
Following a forbidden romance of two lovers (Tongan/Australian choreographer Sela Vai and her real life partner Mark Turner), Ngaiire says that they 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.”
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Ngaiire is currently on her ‘Closer’ Single Launch Tour, with a duo of Melbourne shows coming up soon. Catch her on the remaining dates below and purchase tickets here.
Ngaiire – ‘Closer’ Single Launches Tour Dates
Sat 12 June – The Factory Theatre – Early Show 4PM, Sydney
Sat 12 June – The Factory Theatre – Late Show 8PM, Sydney SOLD OUT
Wednesday 30 June – The Corner Hotel – Early Show, Melbourne
Wednesday 30 June – The Corner Hotel – Late Show, Melbourne
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Watch the ‘Closer’ music video below:
