17 year old Shelby Merchant has just released her debut album Way Past Seventeen and we’re floored by the amount of talent that can be packed in one project by someone so young. We’re confident she’ll be following in the footsteps of other young greats such as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Her first single off this album was for her track “Flammable” which was fully created during the COVID pandemic. Talent and resilience? We’re here for it. Read on to find out more about Shelby’s extraordinary, debut music video.
Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
The song is about the battle between your head and your heart when you find yourself falling for someone who you probably shouldn’t. I wanted the video to follow that story, depicting the before, during, and after of an explosive relationship. Because the major lyrical motif is fire, I included a lot of that in the video. Since this was the first single, I also added a couple of easter eggs for other songs on the album!
What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
The storyline follows that of the song, where two people who aren’t necessarily good for each other defy all logic and run headfirst into a love affair. I wanted to explore the idea that the person in the song would get “burned” whether they entered the relationship or not. That’s what the fire represents in the video, why I’m “on fire” both by myself and otherwise. The visuals follow the three stages that I described earlier. There are images of good times, bad times, and the loneliness that follows. I got a lot of inspiration from the dozens of videos I watched leading up to filming, specifically Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” video and The 1975’s “Robbers” video. I wanted that sense of chaos in my video that they had in theirs.
What was the process of making this video?
This being my first video I didn’t have a whole lot of equipment/ knowledge on how all this is done! But I had this concept in my head, so I figured there was no better day to start than that day! I recruited a couple of my friends and went headfirst into it. The filming took about 5 days, and the editing took a week. I think because none of us really knew what we were doing, there’s an element of youth in the video. It was so much fun to just goof off with my buddies and create something we all could be really proud of.
Check out Shelby Merchant’s video for “Flammable” below:
Connect with Shelby Merchant:
https://www.shelbymerchantmusic.com/
Modern Mystery 