Before its official release today, last night Revenge Wife (Elizabeth Nistico) invited her fans to a midnight screening of “Earthquake,” the first in a series of horror-themed videos directed by Nistico herself, which will culminate in a surreal nightmarish short film. As Revenge Wife, Nistico (formerly the lead singer and co-founder of acclaimed indie pop duo HOLYCHILD) steps out of her comfort zone and into a captivating new persona that allows her to explore trauma and abuse that has shaped her life through music, video, and art like never before.
“My fascination with horror comes from trying to examine fear in myself and how I can move forward knowing that fear is inherent to the human experience. I’m making art to try to understand myself and be a more stable person.” Liz continues, “Going into relationships, or into anything I really want, is so terrifying for me that I feel bound by trepidation. The horror film aesthetic really brings out the fear that blankets my concept of love.” She adds, “I learned so much about filmmaking from the music video for ‘Earthquake’.
Earthquake’ is the lead single from the forthcoming debut EP, Background Songs for Your Boring Life, Part I, a collection of sad girl lo-fi horror pop that’s inspired by dreams, mystical experiences, and a lot of self-reflection. The song combines minimalist indie pop production with catchy melodies, clever 90s’ video game inspired samples, and raw lyrics that focus on relationships and trying to trust love.
The music video for “Earthquake” was shot entirely on an iPhone during a cross-country road trip through Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana during the pandemic. “The difficult part wasn’t setting up the composition of the shots, though that definitely was a challenge at times, but it was telling this story I had in my head. What beats did I need to hit in order to make it clear? To show a woman on a journey motivated by love and trauma?” recalls Elizabeth. “She keeps having flashes of terrifying images that are trauma based for her and you know that you want something but fear comes in and I think that doubt is really debilitating. So, I wanted the music video to show all these aspects of things that I’m dealing with”.
To date, Nistico has directed over 40 music videos for HOLYCHILD as well as other artists including Kate Nash and her work has been featured at MOMA, so she is used to working with crews and budgets, but this one was just her and her boyfriend and their iPhones on the road, rogue shooting in nature. “Editing it was a whole other story that we can get to another day. At the end, I’m really proud that this is the first part in a series of horror-based music videos/films,” says Elizabeth.
ABOUT ELIZABETH NISTICO
Revenge Wife is the latest music, video, and art project by Elizabeth Nistico, former lead singer and cofounder of indie pop band, Holychild. To date, Holychild boasts over 30 million streams on Spotify and 5 million streams on YouTube. Nistico has directed more than 40 music videos for Holychild and other artists. She has also co-written songs for other artists including “Xanax Damage” by Future. She has sync deals with Apple and Old Navy to name a couple brands. She has toured with Passion Pit, Walk the Moon, and MØ. Her video work has been featured at MOMA. Nistico has been featured in Vogue, Nylon, Paper Mag, Billboard, NME, Huff Post, Spin, EW, and Earmilk. Elizabeth was also a columnist for V Magazine.
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