AERI Looks For Relief in Haunting New Single "Okay, Okay"
Brooklyn-based indie artist AERI fights her intrusive thoughts and searches for peace on her latest single, "okay, okay." In the emotionally charged effort, whose release coincides with AAPI Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, AERI bares her soul as edgy, prickly production enwraps the listener.
The track is filled with tension from the start, bringing in layers of staticy synths and beats. Over the uneasy arrangement, AERI croons, "Lost in a crowded home / These thoughts were never my own, no /Don't take it from me / please break it from me/what's it cost to get peace?" As her thoughts and heart rate begin to race, she finds herself emotionally and eventually physically suffocating as panic tightens its grip. Ethereal vocal harmonies and droning samples join the haunting production, giving way to an intricate sound collage that supports the singer-songwriter as she looks for any source of relief and soothes herself with the mantra, "I'm okay."
"I've quietly been on a journey with what I now understand as OCD," shares AERI. "It was an extremely vulnerable, and rewarding practice to let my collaborators in and visualize something that I deeply struggle with, in this way."
In the accompanying music video, directed by Prisca Choe, the visual brings visibility to often-overlooked aspects of mental health within the Asian diaspora. She reflects the various characters within AERI's mind of anxiety and OCD. Intrusive thoughts clash with grounding mantras, and panic waves surge against breath, yet the body keeps moving, pushing forward through the chaos.
"I wanted to embody the tension between the erratic noise in my head and the movement that gets me through it," states AERI. "Between thrusting my body against a wall and learning how to fall backward (expertly guided by movement director Marie Lloyd Paspe), I really had to let myself go of restriction and control—which in and of itself was cathartic."
Watch the "okay, okay," video below:
