{"id":26745,"date":"2021-06-16T12:01:36","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T12:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=26745"},"modified":"2021-06-16T20:24:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T20:24:39","slug":"serpentwithfeet-heart-storm-nao","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/serpentwithfeet-heart-storm-nao\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Premiere: Serpentwithfeet Talks About The Video For His Latest Single \u201cHeart Storm\u201d Featuring Nao"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_26747\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26747\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26747\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/06\/serpentwithfeet-Photo-Credit-Braylen-Dion-scaled-1-e1623781033651.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Serpentwithfeet\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Serpentwithfeet (Photo: Braylen Dion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Love is in the air for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/serpentwithfeet\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\">serpentwithfeet<\/a>. Sometimes literally. The 32-year-old experimental <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/teyana-taylor-maxims-first-black-sexiest-woman-alive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">R&amp;B singer\u2019s<\/a> second full-length album <a href=\"https:\/\/www.serpentwithfeet.co\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>DEACON<\/em><\/a> is all about Black gay romance, and on his latest single \u201cHeart Storm,\u201d that represents a force powerful enough to split open the skies. \u201cBoy, when you and I get together, \u2019xpect some wicked weather,\u201d he sings in the opening line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about the ways that I feel, and I\u2019m sure many other people feel, when you have a great relationship with your partner, and you feel like the world or the atmosphere is constantly responding to it,\u201d he tells <em>GRAZIA<\/em>. \u201cYour love is so powerful that it causes storms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The video for the track, which we\u2019re premiering here exclusively, is a bit of a departure from Serpent\u2019s recent clips. It\u2019s a stripped down, minimalist reflection of the serene \u201cdeacon energy\u201d he wanted to harness on the album, featuring just Serpent and English singer-songwriter Nao, with whom he wrote the track. Check it out below, along with our exclusive conversation.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"serpentwithfeet - Heart Storm (with NAO) (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Omy2nsvWH1s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>GRAZIA: \u201cHeart Storm\u201d is the third single from <em>DEACON<\/em>. Why\u2019s you decide to release this song when you did?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>serpentwithfeet: Well, there\u2019re so many different reasons. One of the reasons is, I love an R&amp;B slow jam, and \u201cHeart Storm\u201d is that. And I\u2019m also really excited that I got to work with Nao. I wanted to share it, I wanted to push it, because the song meant a lot to me and a lot went into it\u2014into making the song<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Of course, it\u2019s a duet with Nao, and you also co-wrote the song together. Tell me about working with her. How did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Yeah, I\u2019ve known Nao for a few years now. We had been talking about working together for a while, and I am featured on a song on her album, and I asked her to be on a song on mine. Which was a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun working together. We just wanted something that felt grown. That\u2019s how we came up with \u201cHeart Storm.\u201d Just talking through it and it\u2019s where we landed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What kind of conversations did the two of you have while writing the song? Were there certain themes, certain things on both of your minds that you connected over?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I don\u2019t have so much to say about that, to be honest.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Does that extend to what the song is about? Can we talk about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Yeah, I\u2026am interested in magical realism. And I love the idea of thinking about how\u2026 I enjoy writing in hyperbole. The first line is, \u201cBoy, when you and I get together, \u2019xpect some wicked weather.\u201d It\u2019s about the ways that I feel, and I\u2019m sure many other people feel, when you have a great relationship with your partner, and you feel like the world or the atmosphere is constantly responding to it. Your love is so powerful that it causes storms, the skies are cracking open. That\u2019s the sort of wonder I was thinking about. This is a storm that we welcome. You know, the angels will sing about it, the lightning can\u2019t help but dance when you and I look at each other. And so, that is sort of, I guess, my little dance with magical realism in the song.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Talk to me about the concept for the video. What did you want people to feel when then watch it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Well, it\u2019s a really simple video. It\u2019s a performance video. And we just wanted something that felt really simple. I think my previous videos were so much about location, and this one just departed from that idea. Super simple, super stripped back.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26746\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26746\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26746\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/06\/serpent_by_BraylenDion-scaled-1.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Serpentwithfeet\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26746\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Serpentwithfeet (Photo: Braylen Dion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve called <em>DEACON<\/em> \u201ca study rather than a story.\u201d What do you mean by that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I think oftentimes people may think that albums have a sort of black-and-white storyline. Sometimes that is the case for certain albums. This album wasn\u2019t that. In most of my projects, I\u2019m more interested in understanding the energy of a thing. That has always been the case with all my projects, and this one the same is true. I wanted to understand what I call \u201cthe deacon energy.\u201d I wanted to understand what it means to be calm and self-possessed and how, some people, when they walk, they just seem to\u2026just have all the assistance of the breeze. [Laughs] There\u2019s, like, a certain airiness about them. I just wanted to understand that energy sonically. It was more of an energetic study.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s interesting. We were talking about storms, and I feel like the calm energy you\u2019re talking about, and even the simplicity of the \u201cHeart Storm\u201d video kind of contrasts with the wildness of a storm.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I don\u2019t see it so much as a contrast, because after a storm, during a storm you get a lot of wind a lot of breeze. I think the way that the song is written, there\u2019s no heavy drums, there\u2019s no evident pulse in \u201cHeart Storm,\u201d which was all intentional.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>You wanted to exclude songs about heartbreak from the album. Why did you want to do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I just didn\u2019t fit the palette for this project. Like I said, I\u2019m really interested in getting the vibe right for the albums. I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever gone into anything trying to tell a beginning-middle-end story. I\u2019m more so interested in trying to understand a space or location or a mood. So, I know how to write heartbreak songs. I know how to write songs about disappointment. But that wasn\u2019t the space for this project. It just wasn\u2019t appropriate.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26763\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26763\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26763\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/06\/serpentwithfeet-Photo-Credit-Braylen-Dion-scaled-2.jpg?w=768\" alt=\"Serpentwithfeet\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26763\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Serpentwithfeet (Photo: Braylen Dion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>So, do you just sort of cordon off those feelings \u2014 the kind of things that would inspire a sad song? Or are you writing those at the same time and just saving them for later?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>No, I think\u2026I like to get in a certain headspace when I\u2019m working. I think I\u2019m pretty disciplined with the things I allow myself to read. Different people work differently, but for me, I get kind of super focused on an idea during album season\u2014 you know, album-making season, rather. I only want to focus on that sort of thing. I enjoyed reading a lot about romantic love and things that felt a bit more buoyant. Where on previous albums, I would read a lot of things about enormous grief or heartbreak, or trying to understand the intricacies of romantic relationships. I try to use language that can be of great assistance to what I\u2019m trying to do. That\u2019s always my pursuit. It\u2019s not up to me to decide if I accomplished it or not. That\u2019s the audience\u2019s job \u2014 to decide if it worked or not.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you mind sharing some of the stuff that you read while working on <em>DEACON<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I feel like I\u2019m constantly reading Yrsa Daley-Ward\u2019s <\/em>Bone<em>. I was reading Jericho Brown\u2019s <\/em>The New Testament<em>. I was reading <\/em>In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology<em>, and just finding poems that felt loving. Poems that described the Black gay love experience in a way that I felt could \u2014 well, just because I enjoy reading them! I think, when I read other writers who talk about love in such a specific way, it gives me a lot of tools. I felt really supported during this project. I felt like I could really be myself. And maybe that\u2019s, like, a very silly thing to say, because I\u2019ve always felt like I could be myself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>I think a lot of people who don\u2019t write songs often assume that a songwriter is writing autobiographically. But it sounds like you\u2019re saying you don\u2019t necessarily do that. You draw inspiration from works in other mediums.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I don\u2019t think I\u2019m every really responding to someone else\u2019s specific work. I didn\u2019t read a poem or a passage and say, \u201cOoh, I\u2019m gonna write about this!\u201d That didn\u2019t happen on this project. But\u2026I have three songs named after men on the album. They aren\u2019t named after real men. But again, thinking about the energetic thing. \u201cDerek\u2019s Beard,\u201d thinking about when I\u2019m dating a guy, or someone\u2019s dating a guy who has a great beard and you miss the fuzziness of it, and it\u2019s three o\u2019clock in the morning and he has to be at work at 10am, but you\u2019re like, \u201cCan you please come over?\u201d You just have that moment when you\u2019re pining. Thinking about that particular thing. I\u2019ve never texted a guy at 3am named Derek, but I think many of us know that feeling when you\u2019re missing your partner and you know they have to be up early and you don\u2019t want to be inconsiderate. Things like that. I\u2019m thinking about scenarios\u2026yeah, a lot of it\u2019s fictional, but I think it\u2019s based in some sort of truth.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":26747,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exclusive Premiere: Serpentwithfeet Talks About The Video For His Latest Single \u201cHeart Storm\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Love is in the air for serpentwithfeet. Sometimes literally. The 32-year-old experimental R&amp;B singer\u2019s second full-length album &#039;DEACON&#039; is all about Black gay romance, and on his latest single \u201cHeart Storm,\u201d that represents a force powerful enough to split open the skies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/serpentwithfeet-heart-storm-nao\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive Premiere: Serpentwithfeet Talks About The Video For His Latest Single \u201cHeart Storm\u201d Featuring Nao\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Love is in the air for serpentwithfeet. Sometimes literally. 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