My name is AlienBlaze and I have been interested in the subject of social media and how it is creating a society obsessed with fame and mini fame. By that, I mean people who would not necessarily have achieved a platform in the past, like influencers, who can now be a brand in themselves.
It has made being an artist in the music industry difficult in the sense that everything is now dictated by numbers and algorithms which in turn has made it increasingly hard to remain authentic.
Obsession with fame and hedonism however is not new, so I wanted to write “Enemies With Benefits” to reflect some of what I was feeling. I had watched Gossip Girl around the time of writing, which also reflects a self obsessed wealthy society so it fed into the process of writing. I wrote the song with the producer team The Nocturns in a single day which is credit to their incredible skills. We were all thrilled with the result.
When it came to making a video for “Enemies With Benefits”, I wanted to use references from scenes in TV series and films, like The Graduate, Gossip Girl, The Idol and The Swimmer to name a few, to create the overall look and vibe.
The idea was to mesh these older cinematic themes to the new to make something vibrant, but somehow cinematic which I hope we achieved. I wanted to also have a sense of dislocation from the other people in the video who were quite happy with the hedonistic lifestyle.
To find the right location took some doing, but eventually we were lucky enough to get a beautiful setting for the filming. In the run up to the shoot, I had been checking the weather constantly because every day more or less in the run up had been pouring with rain.
On the day however, the rain held off and we had an overcast slightly cool day, which actually was reasonably good for filming. When it came to being in the pool, although it was heated, getting out was freezing! I was literally shivering after the pool shots!
All my friends came to help out by being in the video and enjoyed the process of making the video with me, even though the smoke shot was interesting and caused a lot of coughing afterwards. They were also brave enough to get into the pool for the overhead shot, taken on a drone, but had to retreat to the warmth afterwards as getting out of the water was instantly enough to make anyone chilled.
The video came together as they so often do at the last minute just before the release and came out at the same time as the song. I hope anyone watching it enjoys the overall effect!
I think “Enemies With Benefits” represents an evolution for me towards a more alt rock / pop sound. This is the direction I’m heading in even though I recently did a rock rap track with the amazing Omen XIII. The song was called “Lovesick” and is a very powerful break up song, so this next move with “Enemies With Benefits” represents a change in direction, but also perhaps getting into a villain era mode.
I’m very interested in collaborating with other artists moving forwards too because I think that is such a great way of getting new inspiration and seeing what can be created. I’m currently in the process of writing tracks for other artists because I love the process of songwriting. I’m also in the studio creating new songs for myself to release later this year.
I hope that everyone enjoys “Enemies With Benefits” for what it is, an alt pop genre fluid song. Watch the video for “Enemies With Benefits” below and stream it everywhere else here
