Following the release of her powerhouse single ‘Heaven’, the title track of her forthcoming EP, due out November 2nd, San Mei returns with an accompanying video, which premiered on Cool Accidents this week.
The ‘Heaven’ video sees San Mei go three for three with Jennifer Embleton of Somersault Visuals, the director and creative force behind San Mei’s ‘Wonder‘ and ‘Until You Feel Good’ videos, the latter even receiving a nod from CLIPPED Music Video Awards in 2018. ‘Heaven’s visual accompaniment depicts a burgeoning love affair between strangers, and was inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Wong Kai Wai’s Chungking Express.
On the video’s treatment, San Mei explains ‘The idea was to focus on the sweetness of the young love between two star-crossed lovers. Where the song itself can lean towards a more cautionary and even sad tale about love gone wrong, we wanted to keep the video light and the emphasis on the innocence and dreamlike state of the two lovers – the moment where they’re wrapped up in one another and it still feels like heaven (tying in with the lyrics in the chorus “did you think it was heaven?”). The story ends with them still in this surreal moment together before reality sets in to pull them apart.”
‘Heaven’ is the namesake and second track pulled from San Mei’s upcoming EP, due out November 2nd. A release which sees her entrust production duties to Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy, Ali Barter, Alex Lahey, Joyride, British India and Robbie Miller). Dawson was integral in challenging and galvanizing San Mei’s creative process and aural evolution. Together, they laid the foundations for San Mei’s sonic progression by cultivating and refining ideas and exploring soundscapes to produce Heaven. With the creative freedom brought in by the harmonious and symbiotic collaboration, San Mei explains “[Dawson and I] hit it off straight away and it seemed like he understood where I was coming from, even when I had trouble conveying certain ideas in the demos I made at home.”
The new single ‘Heaven’ follows ‘Wonder’, which was championed by national youth broadcaster triple j, copping an Australian radio premiere on Good Nightswith Bridget Hustwaite, a spin on Kingsmill’s 2018 and promptly being added to rotation. Subsequently landing her as the 6th most played unsigned artist ontriple j in the weeks after its release. Unearthed can’t get enough either, with ‘Wonder’ shooting San Mei to ‘Unearthed Artist of the Week’ and securing ‘Unearthed Best New Song of the Week’. While Amazon Music named ‘Wonder’ their ‘Song Of The Day’ and their ‘Weekly One’, Apple Music added it to their ‘Best Of The Week’ and Spotify included it on a host of their curated playlists as it racked up over 148,000 streams. The accompanying video saw San Mei nab the ‘Upload of The Week’ on MTV and a rotation add to RAGE.
San Mei has also garnered worldwide attention being praised by international heavyweights NME, Stereofox, Nylon and Indie Shuffle. On top of the praise, ‘Wonder’ reached the number one spot on Hype Machine the week of its release.
The downhill run toward the Heaven EP being released has seen San Mei showcase at BIGSOUND, support G Flip during the Brisbane leg of her national tour and has her gearing up to play her first ever headlining shows in Sydney and Melbourne this October. Closing out 2018, San Mei will join Holy Holy on a seven date East Coast run throughout November and December.
The video for San Mei’s new single ‘Heaven’ is OUT NOW. Catch San Mei’s live nationally throughout October, November and December. Heaven EP is set for release on November 2 via L X V I.
SAN MEI LIVE DATES
SAT 13 OCTOBER | THE HIDDEN LANES FESTIVAL | BRISBANE, QLD
FREE ENTRY | EVENT
FRI 19 OCTOBER | WORLD BAR | SYDNEY, NSW *
FREE ENTRY w/ RSVP or TICKETS ON DOOR | EVENT
SAT 20 OCTOBER | YAH YAHS | MELBOURNE, VIC *
FREE ENTRY | EVENT
THUR 15 NOVEMBER | THE CAMBRIDGE HOTEL | NEWCASTLE, NSW **
EVENT
FRI 6 NOVEMBER | THE BEERY | TERRIGAL, NSW **
EVENT
SAT 17 NOVEMBER | THE METRO | SYDNEY, NSW **
EVENT
THUR 22 NOVEMBER | SOLBAR | MAROOCHYDORE, QLD **
EVENT
FRI 23 NOVEMBER | MIAMI MARKETTA | GOLD COAST, QLD **
EVENT
SAT 24 NOVEMBER | THE TRIFFID | BRISBANE, QLD **
EVENT
FRI 7 DECEMBER | 170 RUSSEL | MELBOURNE, VIC **
EVENT
* Denotes headlining show
** Denotes Holy Holy support dates
TICKETS FOR HOLY HOLY ‘FACES’ TOUR ON SALE NOW