Beabadoobee Talks on Her New EP and Music Video for ‘Cologne’

On June 23, beabadoobee dropped the music video for a track on her newest EP, Our Extended Play, called “Cologne”. The Philippino-British artist is planning on having a busy year after announcing her tour dates, one in England and one in the U.S. She will tour major cities Manchester, London, New York, Los Angeles, and many more. Her career has been on the rise after the massive hit “death bed” feat. Powfu hit streaming sites. The song is actually a remix of sorts on her 2017 single “Coffee”. Since the release of her debut album Fake it Flowers in October 2020, which she describes as, “pretty much my whole life in one album,” she’s been on a roll with her music. Even then, she began writing the songs for this most recent EP. Beabadoobee herself has grown into who she wants to be and what she wants to express through her music. All of it is evident in the four new songs on Our Extended Play: “Last Day On Earth”, “Cologne”, “Animal Noises”, and “He Gets Me So High”. 

Bea had a lot to think about when planning out the music video for the track “Cologne”. The chill-rock, 2000s-inspired track is filled with many complex tones that accompany her airy voice. It takes multiple listens to hear the fully-fleshed-out guitar and drumbeat in the back. Her stable singing contrasts with the chaos of the instruments but creates a whole musical experience that replicates an action movie in one’s head. In fact, the directors of the music video Lewis Levi and Alex Motlhabane, better known as the British duo The Rest, told i-D in an interview that, “We like making music videos that feel like movie trailers and I’d been thinking for a while about this idea of a group of friends who travel from place to place, robbing parties and posing as a touring band. So when Bea said she wanted to do something that feels like an action movie, that stuck out in my head.” The group did exactly what Bea requested. They created a wonderfully artistic cinematic journey, inspired by Wes Anderson’s Bottlerocket, with unique editing techniques, framing, and shot types.

“Cologne” is encapsulated in a hazy feeling with the audience unaware of where the characters will venture next. It ties the music video aspect into the film’s storyline, and out comes a suspense-filled thriller. Every scene comes in at the right moments, and the plot begins to unravel when the electric guitar solo triggers the characters to go into action. Beabadoobee and her castmates play a band that infiltrates an expensive night party. The blurry point-of-view scenes cut between police officers lurking around emphasize the chaos that the music video has turned into. Viewers can easily get lost in the scheme of things as the music guides each plot point forward.

Every song reveals one more layer from the artist. In a bad analogy, she is an onion and each song peels back another layer, exposing the chef to more tear-jerking songs hidden beneath. Bea notes that the tracks are an ode to the emotions she felt last July, which are ultimately a beautiful combination of bitter and sweet that draws listeners in for the long haul. They subtly discuss topics regarding self-esteem on her journey to acceptance and confronting herself to finally grow up after resisting change for so long. She pours her feelings into the lyrics of her music, especially in “Animal Noises” where the words act as her thoughts,  pulling herself together after a series of unfortunate events. “Last Day On Earth” embraces empowerment and sounds vaguely familiar. That is until you realize that the co-writers of this track are Matty Healy and George Daniel from the 1975. This deal between Bea, Healy, and Daniel is not new. Not only are the 1975 and beabadoobee labelmates, but it was also revealed earlier this year that the trio worked on the songs together. 

Thank uuu @i_D ♥️🥺https://t.co/zyhkZYzMpv pic.twitter.com/3xKcwy4yt7

— beabadoobee (@beabad00bee) June 23, 2021

Bea talked to Rolling Stone about “Last Day On Earth” in particular saying that it, “is about all the things I would have done had I known we were going into a lockdown and the world was going to change the way it has. It was written shortly after the first main lockdown and lyrically it’s me reflecting on how it would feel if we all knew ahead of time what was going to happen. All the things I would have done if I knew it was the last day of our old normality,” adding, “I wanted to experiment on the sounds and sonics even more and the EP to me has a feeling of togetherness to it… How we’re all in this joined as one”. Our Extended Play will act as the guide for her second full-length album, which she says will be coming soon. 

In her interview with i-D, she reflected on the writing process and admitted to working with the boys from the 1975 on multiple songs. She overstepped her comfort zone to fully collaborate with the two as she’s, “always been really anal about the music I write. But I found writing with Matty taught me a lot; even if it was just the basic rules of songwriting and how you don’t need a complicated chord progression to make a great song.” Just as the writing experience was a combined effort, they decided on the name Our Extended Play to emphasize that the EP was their creation and that they really worked on it together. Bea intended for the project to be a bridge between Fake It Flowers and her next album that she already began working on. Even though Fake It Flowers was her entire life summarized in twelve tracks, Our Extended Play was written with the purpose of expressing how she felt after that album was released. Bea summarized each song in her own words: “With “Cologne”, to be blatantly honest, I just wanted to write a song about sex and finding myself attractive. “Animal Noises” is about the fear of growing up. “Last Day On Earth” is the whole Covid thing. So yeah, the EP is just about how I was feeling in that moment.” Meanwhile, “He Gets Me So High” was actually a song written by Matty originally titled “She Gets Me So High.” 

At last, she commented on going to shows again and performing live, which she has not done in over two years: “Yeah, I’m just really excited to go on tour and put this EP out. Our Extended Play definitely marks a growing period for me — there’s a lot of learning and self-growth there. It’s just four songs but it really helped me.” Our Extended Play is truly a masterpiece waiting to hit the stage.