Maryze Shares Their Queer Bloody Music Clip for ‘Emo’

Today, Montreal's bilingual alt-popstar Maryze shares their self-directed queer horror-themed music video for the popular single “Emo” off her debut album 8, released earlier this year on Hot Tramp Records. ‘Emo’ pays homage to the wonderful 2000s’ era of emo including pop punk icons like Avril Lavigne and Haley Williams while booming through with Pete Wentz/Fall Out Boy bass tones.

The concept for the video was develop with horror screenwriter Joel H. Brewster (visuals for the video was shot by Janette King and Edited by Solomon Kruase-Imlach), making the video Maryze’s most ‘cinematic and narrative project yet’. The music video follows model/artist Brit Carpenter’s dysfunctional romance—we follow their relationship from the honeymoon phase as it evolves into a toxic situation that comes to an end in a bloody finale.

I always seek out queer representation in horror, so this music video is my little contribution. I also feel like queer narratives lack the nuance that straight relationships receive in film, so I wanted to portray all the sides of the story, from beautiful tender moments, to scary unhealthy fights. The horror aspect is left pretty ambiguous and moves into a more experimental art direction. We set out to use horror devices to  illustrate the toxicity of relationships without having any explicit on-screen violence. I wanted the viewer tobe left asking: “who killed who?”

– Maryze