Exclusive Video Premiere: ‘Sleep,’ Maisy Kay

A few weeks before the release of her debut EP Disguises, we’re pleased to premiere 17-year-old singer/songwriter Maisy Kay’s first official music video. Kay’s echoing, angelic voice assumes an eerie tinge on the track, “Sleep,” as she sings “Am I out of time / Losing my mind … Angel or an enemy / Tell me what you want from me” atop powerful piano and between Latin chants of “insomnis, insomnis, insomnis.”

“The song came to me one night at 3:00 AM,” Kay says. “I wanted to show how chaotic your mind gets without sleep. I felt strongly that the chant needed to be in another language and was drawn to the Latin word of insomnia.”

Though she doesn’t personally know Latin, the U.K.-born, L.A.-based artist spoke with her friend and actor Gabe Dell to figure out the best language and appropriate words. “It is one of the songs [on the EP] that came out exactly as I had dreamt it up,” she continues. “Sonically and lyrically it fulfills what I wanted this EP to represent and press upon the listener.”

To conceive the dreamlike and hallucinatory video, Kay worked with Kavan the Kid and Nova Rockafeller. They spent 12 hours filming at the Los Angeles Forest, outside of Pasedena. All of the butterflies seen in the video were natural; she simply allowed them to crawl on her. The final shot, however, was scrapped due to what Kay calls “a black widow spider problem.” She continues with a laugh, saying, “I’m proud to have survived death in order to bring you this video!”

DISGUISES WILL BE RELEASED JULY 15 AND CAN BE PRE-ORDRED HERE.