Posted: by The Editor
Annelise Steele has been performing as Liska for three years, and in that time, she’s sharpened her skills. Steele writes taut, crystalline indie pop songs that combine brisk, chunky riffs with bouncy, danceable beats–listening to a Liska song gives the impression it’s only a matter of time before she dominates the radio, and never has that been clearer than on her newest single “It Girl.” She says she
wrote “It Girl” as somewhat of a declaration to myself. I was really feeling myself and spending arguably too much time on Pinterest, so a lot of the lyrics were essentially random thought bubbles I’d periodically put in my notes, strung together into a song. I wanted to create this character who’s confident, unapologetic and maybe a little bit too wrapped up in her own world. Might have even gone a little too Daniel Day-Lewis stepping into this character. I was also spending a lot of time on TikTok, absolutely fascinated by the endless amounts of ‘aesthetics’ different “It Girls” could tap into. I wanted to experience them all at once. The matcha drinking girlie girl, the cigarette smoking Olsen twin–like what would it look like if these girls were the same person? And is it possible I could become that person?
The song is a blast, referencing Bella Hadid and Mean Girls. Today we’re excited to premiere the video for the single, which pairs perfectly with the song’s throwback vibes. On the video, Steele notes:
I wanted to emulate Marina and The Diamonds’ “Primadonna Girl” music video, which in my mind was essentially just a lot of quick cuts and a cute outfit. The director, Connor Weitz, was able to take this vague vision of a video and turn it into something really cohesive and eye-catching. We also wanted to incorporate photography in some way so we enlisted our friend Charlie Young to help us out with that concept, he also makes a meta-cameo appearance in the video which is really fun.
Check that out below.
Liska’s It Girl EP is slated to drop in September.
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Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
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