Britt battles demons in her new video for the song Monster — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The fact that Emmy Award-winning actor, composer, producer, and singer/songwriter Brittany Allen refers to Monster as “vicious” not once, but twice, should shed light on what internal hurdles the Canadian artist aims to overcome through her newest single’s lyrical themes.
The track lands ahead of her forthcoming debut EP, Khamai Lion (out in December), to be released under the moniker of Britt. Perched to the left of pop, the full-bodied EP features the Torontonian’s unique brand of sound, and delves deep into darkness to find an unexpected light.
“I wrote this song with Nygel Asselin at his studio in Vancouver,” Britt explains. “I came in that morning knowing I wanted to explore the feeling of taking your pain out on the person you’re with. We jammed about the idea, and found the song together. It was a great collaboration.
“I was working through my own inner demons,” she continues, confiding that taking things out on her partner was something she contended with at the time. “I had woken up with the clarity to recognize where it was coming from, but I still didn’t know how to stop it. It felt like something other than me was taking over… Something vicious and mean.”
Despite the sunny skies of Britt’s half-base in Los Angeles lording over the video, Monster delivers a darkly intimate and hauntingly raw interpretation of emotionally charged relationships. “I choreographed this video together with Bryan Hindle,” Britt says, setting the scene; she also edited the video in its entirety. “We were our own camera operators, moving the tripod to different spots around the location.
“We wanted to physically represent the feelings of that moment in a relationship, where one person is wielding the power — pushing and pulling the other, puppeteering them to suit their needs at any given second. The roller coaster of it all… The cycle of hurt and forgiveness… The falling back into each other’s arms… And the exhaustion of that vicious cycle.”
Finding that Monster deftly delivers a storyline despite its stunning simplicity will come as little surprise to those familiar with Britt’s multi-faceted work and wide-ranging skill set. Her debut film score (the SXSW-featured film What Keeps You Alive) received critical acclaim, while her second, this time for the forthcoming film Z, has already won Best Score at the Sin City Film Festival. Set to feature at Toronto’s Blood in The Snow Festival the soul-tugging compositions — accompanied by her unsettling artwork for the film’s imaginary friend — has Allen dubbed as the feature’s “secret weapon.”
An actor since age nine, Allen’s credits include All My Children — for which she won an Emmy Award — Schitt’s Creek, Bomb Girls, Saving Hope, Jigsaw, The Prodigy and most notably her role as Popclaw, the scene-stealing superhero in Amazon’s smash hit The Boys. She also starred in the film Extraterrestrial, where she met her partner, award-winning filmmaker Colin Minihan. The pair have since collaborated on three films, including the acclaimed It Stains The Sands Red and What Keeps You Alive.
Watch Monster above and keep up with Britt on Twitter and Instagram.
