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Rita Mae has started NZ Music Month with a bang with the release of her first single of the year, “Kiss the Sky”. Co-written with The Naked and Famous’ award-winning artist Alisa Xayalith, “Kiss the Sky” takes listeners between grungy, stadium-ready noise and acoustic, mellow lines.
Described as greedy, indulgent, and unapologetic, Mae’s reason behind the punchy lyrics is a want for everything – especially love and power. “This song was extremely liberating to write, because I ask for the impossible, I scream it at the top of my lungs, and while I sing those lyrics it somehow doesn’t seem quite so crazy,” she says.
Written and recorded in Xayalith’s home studio in LA, and with Harry Charles on production, Mae says the track came together so quick it basically wrote itself. “It was an amazing song to write,” Mae adds. “One of those magical days where the song just pours out of you and makes sense straight away.”
Accompanying the release is an enigmatic music video, directed by Oscar Keys. The clip shows Mae as an ass-kicking femme fatale hungry for love and power in a world of dark villainy and rockstar stardom. But instead of Mae earning these achievements truthfully, she gets it through brainwashing her victims.
Filmed in a studio in Auckland, it was all hands on deck as Mae and her dancers went through high energy choreography to perfect the villainous energy her lyrics depict. “A very dear friend organised the dancers and choreography; which was fairly doable in rehearsal – and then suddenly much more difficult under bright flashing lights with contact lenses in!” Mae shares.
According to Mae, her new release is the start of her “entering a new era.”
Last year, Molly Payton praised the indie pop artist and her music for Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s My Favourite New Zealand Artist series. “Her live shows are incredible, she completely holds her own as a solo act and lights up a room with a full band. The music is pop but cool pop that you want all your friends to listen to so you can talk about how good it is,” Payton gushed.
“If you ever have a spare half hour I would strongly recommend listening to Rita’s album Superfeeling, and keep an eye out for her next gig – I guarantee you’ll fall in love!”
Rita Mae’s “Kiss the Sky” is out now.
