Aussie newcomer ELKI is breaking out in a major way. Her single Thunder has has cracked 40,000 plays on Spotify and earned her airplay on triple J and BBC Radio 1. Showing no signs of slowing down, she’s ready to release the stylish music video to accompany her cracking debut tune.
Filmed in Sydney and starring dancer/actor Davie Dennis and ELKI herself, this feel-good clip tells the adorable kind of story you can’t help smiling about.
Dancing between abandoned stalls, elevators and neon lights, Thunder by ELKI tells the story of two distanced lovers connecting.
The song is an accessible bite of upbeat pop, with catchy vocals and melodies echoing superhits of recent times like Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know. While the instrumentalism is indeed well thought-out, the vocal work sets it above the myriad of similar pop out there; ELKI’s lyricism, vocal style and engaging attitude take this song far out of the ordinary.
The film clip compliments this style nicely, presenting a heartwarming storyline in very well-produced fashion. Telling the tale of long-distance lovers struggling to find connection, the video is obviously not concocted by amateurs. Co-directed and produced by the artist herself, Thunder enlisted the help of Matt McGuigan from Hospital Hill productions when it came to filming, editing and grading the slick clip.
Speaking to ELKI, we learned that while the clip might be all fun, the process of creating it was a little bit of a minefield:
“We were thrown out of the shopping centre numerous times by security guards, so had to come back and shoot it over multiple days and try and look as inconspicuous as possible…while dancing around on escalators and stairs.”
While small run-ins with security are relatively innocent and harmless (life’s no fun without them, huh?), apparently there were moments in the creation of Thunder in which the danger became very real.
“…Almost died in the making of it! When walking between locations a glass bottle was thrown at our heads and the glass smashed between Davie and me and I felt the glass against my legs. No idea how it just managed to miss us, and no idea why someone would do that!”
We’re glad ELKI, Dennis and McGuigan survived long enough to bring us this clip. Finishing in a dramatic, neon-backlit dance number from the duo, the music video for Thunder ticks all the right boxes. With two killer singles and a tight-knit video under her belt already, we’re looking forward to anything new ELKI serves up.
