Maybe getting this wasted isn’t always a great idea — even if you’re trying to heal from heartbreak. On Thursday, Peach PRC released the music video for her single “Forever Drunk.” The video follows the Australian pop star as she gets ready for a solo night out in an attempt to get over her ex. But everything goes wrong.
“‘Forever Drunk’ looks back at my first heartbreak, when I thought this teenage relationship was all I had in my life, I had no family, I hated school, I didn’t think I was smart or talented,” Peach (born Sharlee Curnow) says in a statement. “Once I lost this person, I went into full-on teenage melodramatic devastation, groveling on my hands and knees begging to be taken back. I thought I would never get over it at the time.”
The video channels that exact energy and opens with the singer — in her ultra-pink bedroom — fixing her bubblegum pink hair and matching mini-dress, and practicing how she’s going to show her fake ID to the bouncer.
At the club, Peach PRC spots her ex-girlfriend kissing another girl, sending her into a crying mess. As she walks out of the bathroom, she spots a sign promoting a “wet t-shirt contest” so she showers herself with water at the club’s bar in an attempt to get her ex’s attention. (It doesn’t work.) After shedding some more tears, she beats up the club DJ and tries to steal his spotlight, before she ends up being dragged off the dancefoor.
“Now that you’re gone I’m forever drunk/It hurts too much to sober up,” she sings in the chorus. “Just let me be forever drunk/Now I’m dancing over silver cans/Pretending they’re adoring fans.”
Making the music video served as a “full-circle moment” for Peach. For the visual, she worked with Nima Nabili Rad, who gave her her first job in music: an acting role in the lyricless Oliver Hendens’ “Melody” video in 2015.
“I was asked to be in his videos a few times and remember always being on set imagining what it would be like to one day be in my own video,” Peach says. “I’ve read so many from Nima over the years and it’s why when I sent this one to him, he didn’t change a thing and allowed me full control.
As for the songwriting on the earworm track, Peach enlisted Bonnie McKee — the lyrical mastermind behind Katy Perry‘s biggest hits, including “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls” — to co-write the song.
“Originally ‘Forever Drunk’ was a much sadder song, but Bonnie and I turned it into an anthemic ‘dance while you cry’ bop, which is what I wanted the song to blossom into anyway,” Peach says. “Bonnie’s like a big sister to me… We’ve had such similar lives and have so much in common, not just in our bubblegum pop music but with our personal journeys too.”
“Forever Drunk” follows the release of her catchy “God is a Freak,” dropped earlier this year. She released “Heavy,” “Symptomatic,” and “Josh” in 2021 after signing with Republic Records. Peach was nominated for best new artist at Rolling Stone Australia Awards earlier this year.
From Rolling Stone US
