Premiere: Lexi Todd flies free in ‘Extra Key’ video
Todd depicts a story of empowerment, as a dear friend breaks the shackles of an abusive relationship.
A cycle of abuse chips away at self-worth and casts the victim into a state of perpetual paranoia. Your will is bent and torn to shreds in the merciless clutches of an abuser. In the age of #MeToo, the abused are finally reclaiming their right to life and morphing into warriors, whose armor might be irreparably scuffed and dented but displays hardened resolve. Those emotional, physical and psychological battle scars turn into well-fashioned weaponry. With “Extra Key,” jazz-pop singer and songwriter Lexi Todd scrawls a harrowing but empowered story of one friend’s retaliation against an abusive ex — from the panic-stricken oppressed to a mighty, self-reliant survivor.
“It is a song of liberation, when the abused finally breaks free from the abuser, but it is not a clean or easy break. I learned from my friend that there are such a mix of emotions in play in a toxic relationship: anger, fear, nostalgia, uncertainty. I tried to convey that tug-of-war of emotions from my perspective in this song,” says Todd, who wrote the entirety of her new EP, Maria, Immured, about the muck and mire of such a relationship, beginning to uproariously splintered end. Cobbling together such influences as Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone and Fleetwood Mac, the Brooklyn storyteller’s musical product doggedly flings between genres with pointed jabs. Her voice goes down smooth but with a relentless sting.
The “Extra Key” music video, directed by Hearin Ko (SHIMASHIMA), premiering exclusively today, sees Todd blending razor-sharp emotions with an almost fantastical quality. She steps into the role of her friend’s guardian angel, urging her to dig into her core for a treasured worth that’s been dead and buried beneath six-feet of pain. “I knew I wanted to incorporate dance into the music video. I grew up dancing, and I find it to be an extremely powerful form of expression,” Todd tells B-Sides & Badlands. “Hearin Ko had the idea that I would be an ethereal, almost guardian angel-like, character, and I think her vision played out beautifully in the video.”
“I almost wish that you could see / How happy she can be / Now that she is free / And you’re not around,” Todd sings, moments before her friend comes to confront her attacker face-to-face and make the decision to leave him for good. The music crumbles, giving way to escalated, exasperated breaths and a heartbeat so thick it punctures the tension. “Well, you can try to walk all over her like you used to do / And you can say that she’s the crazy one / But I know it’s you.”
“Extra Key” clips on the heels of two other essential songs to the story, “Complacent” and “Open Wounds.”
50 percent of all proceeds for Todd’s Maria, Immured EP will go to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) in support of their #SurvivorSpeaks initiative.
Watch below:
Photo Credit: Lucy Van Ellis
