Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, recording artist, and contortionist Lyra Star returns to sprinkle magic and darkness into our days with her latest music video for "The Loneliest Nights."
Star is a self-trained contortionist and uses her imagination to merge her music career with fluid body movement. Her ethereal vocals and profound lyrics are enough to swoon any listener, but her visuals offer a whole other intriguing aspect that's impossible to ignore.
Recently releasing her music video for "The Loneliest Nights," we were honored to feature the single in a previous release, where we mentioned the song's cinematic and soul-clutching appeal. The music video takes listeners through a similar visual venture, as Star can be seen bending over backward (literally) and physically depicting the depths of what isolation can entail.
Directed by Tonya Kay with Cinematography by Andria Chamberlin, the music video for "The Loneliest Nights" opens with close-up body shots of Lyra Star while cutting to graceful scenes of her emotional and fluid body movements. As she begins to serenade us with her incredibly emotional and mesmerizing vocals, Star proceeds to stare into a mirror while turning around, only for the mirror-self to stay put.
This mirror scene is a focal point of this music video, as it emphasizes how we were forced to stay isolated and reacquaint with dark and emotional parts of ourselves that we didn't know existed. As she continues to gracefully move her body and wow us with her fluid and captivating contortion, the video ends on a profoundly reflective and emotional note.
Catch Lyra Star in her captivating and emotional music video for "The Loneliest Nights," now available on YouTube.
A warm welcome back to BuzzMusic, Lyra. We love the emotion and power you've placed into your music video for "The Loneliest Nights." How does this music video share the intensities that isolation can cause?
I think this video shows the intensity of isolation visually with the use of a very minimalistic background/black and white theme as well as through some of the more frantic movements combined with the contortion shapes.
How did director Tonya Kay help bring your ideas to life for the music video, "The Loneliest Nights?" Did you come up with the video's scenes, or was this a shared process?
I had a general vision for the vibe of the video and where I wanted to shoot as far as the location and having the black background, white background, and the mirror. She is the one that came up with the specific scene ideas though... it was her idea to have me kind of crawling around and shaking my hair out and being a bit more frantic with some of my movements rather than graceful. It was definitely slightly out of my comfort zone, but she is a very talented director and visionary. I trust her completely and really loved all of her ideas... I think the video manages to capture the essence of the song in a beautiful and unique way. She also had me sing while doing contortion, which makes it all that much more interesting, unique, and special to the viewer.
Do you usually work with cinematographer Andria Chamberlin for your music videos? What was your experience with Andria on set for "The Loneliest Nights?"
This is my third release with both Andria and Tonya... Andria is a pleasure to work with. She is incredibly calm, chill, and collected, which is so helpful onset because sometimes shoot days can be stressful. Tonya and Andria work really well together, and Andria is so talented at taking shots from different angles... she really knows her stuff when it comes to the technical side of things as well, including knowledge about the lighting necessary to create the right vibe for each scene.
What experience did you want to offer viewers witnessing your music video for "The Loneliest Nights?"
During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time doing my contortion training... movement was a big part of my time in isolation. I also spent a lot of time self-reflecting, meditating, and having moments of panic and frustration as well just from being alone all the time. I want viewers to experience my expression of what loneliness and isolation can cause within the body and the mind... through the art of movement. I think that the video is haunting, mesmerizing, and beautiful... I honestly want people to have the desire to watch it more than once because there is a lot going on as far as themes, movements, and emotions.
How do you manage to find new and engaging ways to place your fluid body movements into your music videos? How do you tell a song's individual story through contortion?
As I said in the first question, this video combines some more frantic and almost tribal movements in addition to the more graceful and controlled contortion shapes that I normally do. This song is about the loneliness and isolation that we were all experiencing during the height of the pandemic. Though we all experienced it in different ways, I think a common thread was having moments of uncertainty and fear as well as moments of reflection that allowed each of us to go deeper within and recognize what we truly desire. Some of us were also perhaps faced with parts of ourselves that we don't like so much, but the time in isolation gave us an opportunity to make changes. It was an experience like no other, and this video is meant to be one interpretation of this universal experience through the art of movement and music.