Indie-pop artist BARKLEY returns today with the official music video for her breakout single, “3AM.” Atwood Magazine got the first look of the video, calling it both “magical” and “a nostalgic trip down memory lane.”
Raw and authentic are two words that spring to mind when listening to BARKLEY. She offers both vulnerability and astuteness that is wise beyond her years. Perfectly complimenting her alt-pop debut, the music video for “3AM” spirals back through memories of a romantic relationship, eventually reaching the present. On the making of the video, BARKLEY writes:
“The 3AM music video came to life after I went home to Toronto for the holidays and discovered an old camcorder in my parents’ home. It was a mid-2000’s camera that my brother used for skateboarding videos, so it had the most delightfully tacky look. I was so inspired, and knew it had to be the centerpiece of the video. I reached out to my director friend, David Aberg, who I met during my time as a USC film student, and we came up with the concept for the video. Basically, we start by seeing my present-day self, waking up the night after a wild party. And through interspersed camcorder memories, we tell the story of the relationship, all the way up until the camcorder memories catch up to the present. We tried to make the video give you that same feeling as the song — sweet, romantic, and kind of devastating.”
Toronto-born and LA-based BARKLEY (née Susie Yankou) has always considered herself somewhat of an outsider. She grew up in Toronto’s Greek neighborhood but never felt fully emerged in the culture — perhaps due to only being half Greek — and she was always the only girl among her brother and nine boy cousins. While she may still be a bit of an outsider — a Canadian living among the chaos of sunny Los Angeles — she is now challenging her otherness in order to make her uniquely edgy indie-pop music.
BARKLEY began writing music as a tween, but her move to LA was originally motivated by her desire to study comedy screenwriting in college. Quickly, her skill for composing pithy dialogue began to naturally influence her song craft and lyrics to become more simplistic, potent, and heartfelt. However it wasn’t until after graduation that she chose her mother’s maiden name as a moniker and became obsessed with putting her unique spin on pop music.
BARKLEY’s lyrics can be unapologetically foul-mouthed yet always honestly raw as she often writes about the dysfunctional times of her life. She’s a self-labeled cynical romantic who takes blunted aspects and gives them sentiment — a feat that only a perpetual outsider can truly emote.
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