The Irish singer-songwriter is debuting her vulnerable new music video with tmrw this morning (Feb. 24).
It has taken nearly three weeks for Lilla Vargen’s “Cold,” released on Jan. 31, to gain a visual.
The powerful video, directed by Locky and starring Jordanne Jones, begins with a young couple driving silently through gloomy backwoods to a secluded cabin. “Am I wasting all my time?” Vargen sings. “Waiting for you to make this right / People like you, they never change / Are we bound to stay the same?”
Once at the cabin, the disconnect between Jones and her male counterpart starts to become palpable. Jones is seen crying on her bed and staring blankly ahead in the shower. When the duo is on screen together, the tension is palpable. They argue in the car. They have sex, but only with him in control. They sit in silence. They fight in the woods. There’s no telling what he might do.
Vargen serves as Jones’ stream of conscious: “You know that I’d never / Have the guts to kick you out / Relying on someone so cold / Is better than no one.”
But by the video’s conclusion, Jones storms out of the car and is breathing heavily walking down a dark road—free.
“I wanted the video for ‘Cold’ to tell the story of abuse in relationships, Vargen said via press release. “This is a story that thousands of women are living every day. I’ve had similar experiences and wished that I could have looked at that relationship more objectively. Even if things look okay on the surface, it doesn’t mean they are.”
Locky added: “As soon as I heard the track, I knew I wanted to focus on the minutiae of an abusive relationship. I wanted this to be an exploration of a toxic relationship; an introspective where we clearly see one person in a dominant and controlling role over the other. Jordanne and Ben really carry us through this story beautifully. There’s an interesting dynamic between their characters. I wanted to do this without ever showing any of the actual abuse. Abuse comes in all shapes and sizes.”
For anyone that needs more information about domestic abuse, Vargen asks to please visit here.
Upcoming headline dates:
April 14: Brighton @ Komedia
April 15: London @ Omeara
April 17: Edinburgh @ The Mash House
April 19: Dublin @ The Grand Social
