Video: Mereki Exudes Uninhibited Joy in New Video for 'The Garden'

Continuing to pair striking visuals with the songs from her debut album Death of a Cloud, Australian/English savant of purposeful pop Mereki today releases the official video for “The Garden.”

Extending her storytelling through the lens of director and longtime creative collaborator Lizzy Born, this video is a playful, artful depiction of uninhibited joy. Tapping into a childlike wonder of dancing like no one is watching and bouncing on the bed, “The Garden” sees Mereki in her purest as she gallivants across the South of France.

Throughout the video, Mereki can be seen in outfits hand selected by the French fashion company MaisonCléo. The brand is dedicated to ethical consumption by individually crafting all of their pieces from surplus fabrics from French Couture Houses.

Mereki said, “I wrote ‘The Garden’ in the depths of winter misery when my mental health was being challenged. I clung to my morning writing routine for sanity and one particularly dreary morning a ladybird landed on my notebook. I was overwhelmed with the sense of godliness that she brought with her. It felt like she was bringing me a message from another place, telling me that everything was going to be okay.

I immediately found the presence and hope that I’d been lacking/seeking and wrote the song right there and then. And she was right, everything did get better. I'm still so grateful to my tiny ladybird friend who gave me a blessing when I needed it the most. Nature is magical like that."

On the creation of the video, she revealed, “My dear friend and longtime collaborator Lizzy Born and I met up in the South of France for a working holiday and made this video with nothing but a camera, clothes from ethical French designer MaisonCléo and friendship. We stopped for coffees and chocolate mousse along the way and made the whole video in the spirit of presence, joy and togetherness.”

Last month, Mereki released the video for “Purple Moons,” also directed by Lizzy Born, which documented her personal growth moving from LA to the UK. This video closely followed her triumphant return to the iconic stages of Glastonbury alongside some of her most admired contemporaries.

Back in March of this year, Mereki released her debut solo album Death of a Cloud via BMG and her own label BunBun Records. Created over seven years and three continents, in collaboration with a roster of the artists Mereki trusted most to bring this deeply personal and intuitively conceived material to life, the album is a look into the joy and difficulty of self-realization and finding the universe within, expressing this journey through music.

Death of a Cloud received praise from the likes of Billboard, FLOOD, Atwood Magazine and many others. In celebration of the body of work, Mereki hosted an album release party at Friar Park. At the release party, guests were welcomed with a Lily Vanilli tea party and a bed suspended in the clouds.

Mereki’s guests were then invited to take a solo healing journey to self-realization through the magical garden walk, while listening to the record. The grounds were dotted with baby blue mushroom fairy circles and letting go rituals linked to each song on the record.

ABOUT MEREKI

Indie Australian/English artist Mereki creates pop with a purpose – vibrant musical worlds that share messages of transcendence and healing without sacrificing the fun. Now based in the UK, she first moved from her native Australia to the USA where she quickly found a home in the spiritually minded creative community of the east side of Los Angeles, collaborating with an impressive collection of producers, writers, and musicians as she refined her song writing and voice, laying the foundations for what was to come.

Mereki began writing and releasing music with esteemed writers & producers Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, Caroline Polachek) and Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira). GRAMMY-nominated superstar producer Ariel Rechtshaid (HAIM, Vampire Weekend, Madonna, Adele) spotted her talent, prompting their collaboration, “Golden Boy”, recorded by fellow Australian icon Kylie Minogue.

She scored writing credits with Phantogram and Atrak, and guest artist and co-writer credit on tracks with Dhani Harrison, Goldroom, Basenji, Flight Facilities and Holychild. While fronting Goldroom, she performed everywhere from middle America to NYC to Bogotá, Colombia, before going on to perform with electronic act Flight Facilities as their featured vocalist on the duo’s sold out North American tour.

Kindness and magic are at the backbone of everything Mereki aims to be and be around in her music and in her life. She finds expression for her message in many creative outlets. In addition to music, she is also working on a record label, a children's book, a book of poetry and a collection of portrait photography.

In 2016, Mereki created Mereki’s Clubhouse, a pop-up event platform with a focus on kindness and creating spaces to give a voice to up-and-coming female artists. The Clubhouse motto “Be Kind” grew into a non-profit organization of the same name. 

Through all her work with and for others, Mereki found time to create her own music. Her debut solo single, “Blue Lake”, was released to critical acclaim from the likes of Spin, Nylon and Flood Magazine. After enduring some personal tragedy and heartbreak, she found catharsis in a brief foray into high-energy punk rock, releasing a few singles that landed her music in a Victoria’s Secret commercial.

In 2017, Mereki returned to the essence of who she truly is with the release of the Beach EP. The songs on Beach have Mereki’s signature style, a distinctly pop-feel with positive messaging, while tracks like “Spiritual”, “French Kissing” and “Got It All” also hold an ethereal, dreamy quality.

Now back with her debut album Death of a Cloud and fresh off a performance at the legendary Glastonbury Festival, this has already been an extraordinary year for Mereki, with much more to come.

photo by Lizzy Born

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