Premiere: Beks highlights her many strengths with the video for her latest single, Devoted
Filmed in Brisbane, the video clip brings together a cast of creatives for a multi-faceted and reference-filled moment.
Rebecca Callander is someone at the cusp of pop's next frontier, no matter how you look at it. She's worked alongside everyone from The Presets' Kim Moyes to Taka Perry, has become a go-to behind-the-scenes, and under her performance alias Beks, has similarly become a go-to in the limelight as well, with a discography full of theatrical and electrifying pop music dating way back to her debut in 2019. She hasn't slowed down since that arrival either; each year - each month, almost - rich with another big move from Beks, doing everything she can to solidify her time in centre stage.
That assurance came in the form of a string of singles and shows last year (the latter only when she could in between lockdowns, that is), but in 2021, it's something more visible when you peek underneath what's shown to the public, where you'll find Beks putting in a tonne of energy and effort into further evolving her sound and image. It's something she's been working on amongst the turbulence of the last year, building herself a vision that will be executed over the course of the next little while; each chapter unveiling a new side - a new edge - to Beks as a multi-faceted persona.
Devoted came out last week as the first taste of Beks' new era, and it showcases exactly what we're talking about. Sonically, it's a sound-clashing delight that brings together genres and textures from the furthest corners of each other, contrasting something like its 80s-indebted guitar riff with the more synthetic and electronic side of its production. Then, on top of all of that, comes the reflective and intelligent lyricism that's often focal in Beks' work, as she dissects power through the song's two-minute-something duration: "It’s about power recall; reclaiming the power you've placed on someone who's exploited that power and giving it back to yourself."
It's a single that if nothing else, highlights the versatility of Beks as a multi-faceted creative. It's also something that's shown in the video clip for Devoted, premiering on Pilerats today ahead of its greater release tomorrow, August 18th. The video clip takes references of iconic films - Titanic, Dirty Dancing, Love Actually, The Notebook, Spiderman 2, Ghost - and replaces them in the context of the song's theme, giving them new backstories as she adds a further dimension to the single through its visual accompaniment.
Directed by Bread Productions and heavily featuring Beks behind-the-scenes, something worth mentioning about Devoted's video clip is also how they manage to bring these stories to life, tapping into the creative spirit of Brisbane through its use of back-up dancers and fashion designer Kimbra Lou, who built the costuming and setting of the video through thrifted materials.
There's plenty more on the way - remix packages and an entire album, no less - but for now, take a dive into the video clip for Devoted as it premieres on Pilerats below, and catch Beks launch the single on August 27th at Brisbane's La La Land - more information and tickets here.