The Concepts behind "One More Night"
In December of 2022, I released my second single titled “One More Night” alongside the conceptual music video that accompanied it’s release. When you release music, it no longer becomes yours. it’s original intent will get lost behind what each listener projects onto what they hear. This is part of what makes music so special, in my opinion.
That being said, I always enjoy reading other artists’ thoughts behind their own music so I thought it would be fun to discuss.
When I set out to write this song, I knew the general vibe that I was going for. I wanted it to be a dance track, something with lots of darker EDM influences in the sound. I truly wanted to write about the feeling of being stuck in a toxic situationship, and how you can know that it’s not good for you but ‘one more night’ couldn’t hurt, right? I like to make mood boards for my songs, and this the one I made for this track prior to writing it:
I very much had the neon pink x cyan color palette in mind from the beginning.
When I came out of the final writing session for the lyrics of the song, after Kamikaze Bitch gave me the instrumental, I realized it turned into something different than what I originally intended it to be. I think this happens a lot with songwriting. Your brain eventually knows what it needs to write, and sometimes you just have to let that process organically come out. Your conscious mind isn’t even aware of it.
In the end, this song turned into showcasing my struggle with my relationship with myself. While the situation that “I” am addressing in the song is still how to handle a tough relationship, the ‘you’ for most of the song is me talking to myself. Moreso the Controller talking to the different versions of myself that you see within the music video. They’re all trying to grapple with the situation that they are in, in their own ways. And in the end, the solution they reach is along the lines of “Please, I’ll be fine if we do this for one more night.”
The music video is inspired by the idea that you can be watching your life and all the different versions of yourself go about their lives, you can be watching it all fall apart, but you aren’t in control and there’s a feeling that there’s nothing you can do about it.
The Troublemaker, The Saviour, and the Watcher being the ‘main’ three characters, while The Controller, for lack of a better statement, is just looking to watch the world burn. When I was making the music video, I didn’t focus too hard on making it true to ‘life’, but moreso exaggerating certain concepts. Each character is based on lyrics or a song that I feel embodies them.
The Troublemaker - I’m not sure if this is a surprise, as I don’t follow K-pop these days, but this character is inspired by the duo ‘Troublemaker’ and their song of the same name.
“When I look in your eyes, I’m a trouble maker. When I stand nex to you, I’m a trouble maker. “
The Saviour - This is sort of a two-for-one, but the main inspiration is the below lyric from the song Haze by Tessa Violet. However, there is an inspiration in this character from the song Saviour by Lights as well.
“I’ll be your empathetic saviour, call me up I’ll meet you later. You can praise me for the way I always know just what to say.”
The Watcher - While there is no lyric in this song that directly uses this name, the general vibe of this character is drawn from the song Hurricane by The Hush Sound.
“Now that the calm’s returned I know I can’t manage… You’re the finest thing that I’ve done, hurricane I’ll never outrun. I could wait around for the dust to still. But I don’t believe that it ever will.”
This entire concept has definitely influenced how I will approach my future releases and I learned a lot from this release, so I hope that you look forward to it! This story is not over. ♥
Watch the music video below: