After the release of her debut album The Revelations of Love in October 2021 and dealing with the unforgiving lows of the music industry and the pandemic in the interim, Norwegian pop witch Moyka is back, and ready to launch her incredible new era. Revitalised, with a new album on the way later this year the first taste of it arrived with the cinematic sad banger ‘Rear View’, followed by an official video directed by Sara Westergaard Karlsen.
“‘Rear View’ is about this destructive love, a kind of obsession that you’re willing to put yourself into someone else’s rear view, just to be in their life,” says Moyka. “I wrote it as a reminder to never make myself small to fit into someone’s life ever again… For the music video to ‘Rear View’ we wanted to capture that lonely feeling of being in someone else’s rear view. Like you’re alone and desperate to be with them. We also explored how we could make me “the villain” from another person’s point of view. The one who can’t ever let go, taken to another level.”
“Working with Monika on ‘Rear View’ has been an important experience for me,” says director Sara Westergaard Karlsen. “We have worked together for a long time, but this was the first time we worked with a bigger crew and could be even more ambitious about what we wanted to achieve, something I think paid off.”
Honest about her journey since The Revelations of Love, Moyka reveals that “It took a long time before I realised that I struggled with depression after releasing my first album. I’m a person who always just pushes through for better or for worse. Suddenly I found myself struggling with finding motivation and purpose – which is not like me at all. It felt like a period of grief and that was really hard to deal with when trying to be a positive person outwardly. I felt like I was outside of my body while things were just happening around me. I couldn’t take anything in and I was just sad all the time. That was really hard to deal with, and it also didn’t make me make good music!“
However after something of a revelation Moyka realised that she could simply wait, take the pressure off and make time for herself. What came next were trips to Copenhagen and Berlin last summer that allowed her to get the sun on her face and make writing music fun again. An album concept started to take shape and suddenly Moyka had a record – the widescreen Movies, Cars and Heartbreak. Pounding with beats and rich with euphoric – and heartbreaking – melodies it’s all about those moments in your life – “when you’re listening to music on the bus, looking out the window that’s covered in raindrops” – that feel like movie scenes.
“Rear View” is a stunning, thunderous introduction to Moyka’s new music. Written with Sivert Hjeltnes Hagtvedt & Anders Kjær (Dagny), it takes Moyka’s influences such as Charli XCX, Grimes and Pink Pantheress and pushes them to the limit – the beats are relentless, the synths maxed out, it requires playing at full volume.
“This was one of the first songs I knew I wanted on the record – because it’s a banger, you know?” says the Norwegian. “It’s a song about this kind of destructive love, when you can’t quite let go of someone. You’re still hoping to get back what you had by reducing yourself to only be in the rear view of someone’s life, convincing yourself ‘oh, it’s, it’s fine. I can still see the stars from here. You know, I’ll be here if you want’. I wanted to explore this crushing feeling in my music, cause that’s something I hadn’t done before. So it’s, yeah, it’s quite sad. But I love that combo of sad and mixed feelings and like, go dance and cry it out!”
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Photos by @idafiskaa_
‘Rear View’ is out now on GEMS: https://moyka.lnk.to/RearView
