FEATURED ARTIST – Meresha
About the video
No American city mixes Caribbean and North American influences quite as audaciously as Miami does, and no neighborhood in Miami foregrounds that fusion as plainly as Little Haiti. For years, it’s been the center of South Floridian artistic ferment — a thriving, colorful area filled with all kinds of trouble. That’s exactly where you’d expect to find an artist like Meresha, and in the “Trouble” clip, she rides her bicycle boldly down NW 71st Street after dark. In the shadow of the interstate, she’s presented with some troublesome opportunities by a handsome man. The next thing you know, she’s twisting through the fluorescent lights of the dancefloor, dazzling with every step, daring the viewer to come closer.
Meresha – Trouble
If you were looking for trouble, where would you go? The club, certainly: there are always intriguing people on the dancefloor, and many of them are open to dangerous possibilities. You might also look under the pylons of the elevated highway that runs through Miami’s ridiculously exciting Little Haiti neighborhood. Time your visit for hours after dark, and you’re bound to find what you’re after. In her latest single and video clip, Meresha chases “Trouble” in the disco and out on the street — and wherever the pop singer goes, she’s entirely at home, completely in control, and hungry for new experiences.
About Meresha
That’s because Meresha is at ease in all contexts and crowds. Although she’s based in South Florida, she’s a true global citizen, and her music reflects the breadth of her experience. She makes pop that exists comfortably at the intersection of traditions and styles: part tropical, part Euro-electronic, part contemporary, part extraterrestrial. In summer 2021, she took us to “Hawaii” with a successful globetrotting single that demonstrated her wanderlust, her knack for crowd-pleasing melody, and, yes, her taste for trouble. “The magic of life is outside taking chances,” she teased us in the verses, “who knows what you’ll find?”
There’s reason to believe that the planet simply isn’t big enough to accommodate all of her adventurous impulses. Meresha calls her style Alien Pop, and it’s not hard to hear why. Her voice is stratospheric, her taste in instrument sounds is otherworldly, and her perspective is consistently extraordinary. On “Trouble,” she matches her tale of desire and transgression to a slinky synthesized string groove, drapes her mix in silky backing vocals, and drives it all home with thumping percussion. You can dance to it, yes — but it’ll probably be the sort of dance that gets you dangerously close to your partner.
Q&A with Meresha
What is the inspriation behind the song?
“Trouble” is about letting loose. I think a lot of people after difficult times in recent years share this sentiment. We want to be set free and make some “Trouble”.
Tell us about your new video!
In the “Trouble” video you meet me walking through a more colorful part of town when I’m stopped and introduced to a club called “Trouble”. Turns out, this is exactly what I needed.
I partially recorded the song in a studio founded by the Producer of the Star Wars Cantina Band song. In a way, the song had a big influence on my career. The studio would not have existed without the success of that song. Every time I would enter the recording room, I would pass the song’s original gold album, an epic part of entertainment history.
The Star Wars cantina scene became part of the inspiration for the video. The characters in the video from “Trouble” are also quite colorful, even if not so obviously alien as those in Star Wars. In the end, it is not obvious whether I or the other club goers are from this planet, or whether the whole thing even happened.
This fits well with my genre, which is “Alien Pop”. Alien Pop is sort of like pop, but also sort of out of this world.
What was it like working with the director?
This was my third time working with David Rousseau, who is one the leading music video directors out there. Miami-based, he has worked with many of the biggest names in music including Pitbull, Drake, Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Lil’ Wayne, Nicki Minaj & many more.
All three shoots with David were amazing. We shot “New Revolution” in Miami Wynwood, “Enter the Dreamland” in the L.A. “River” and Malibu and now “Trouble” in Miami.
The vibes on set are always great and David has endless creative ideas how to capture the essence of my music and me as an artist.
Who are your top 3 influences?
I’m influenced by many great artists from UK electronic artists like James Blake through rock legends like Led Zeppelin or creative geniuses like Prince.
I guess if you could merge Freddy Mercury, Rosalía and Björk you would have an idea from my Alien Pop is coming from.
What was your proudest moment as an artist?
Not sure “proud” is the right word, but “happiest” is when I’m performing to a large audience, be it in Berlin, Warsaw, Boston, New York or Florida. I opened once for Marshmello in front of 40,000, which was amazing. Looking forward to performing a lot more live this year.
Where do you draw inspiration from as an artist?
Nature is always a key inspiration. Travels to places from the Costa Rican rainforest to Kyoto temples to Kauai’i jungles, reading Murakami, learning new languages and exploring different cultures, meeting new people and experiencing new things are also stimulating.
What can your fans expect next?
“Trouble” is my first single of 2022, but there is a lot more coming. I’ve already recorded a set of songs that I can’t wait to share with the world.
This year will also be the year for me to be out playing concerts again.
Check out more great featured artists here!
Links:
Official: https://meresha.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mereshas/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mereshas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mereshas/