My name is Annalise Azadian. I am a singer-soulwriter, musician out of New York. My music is the soundtrack to my life and how I voice my emotions throughout the journey. “Deep Down” is my latest single out now and it is a song many people all over the world can relate to through the common denominator, love.
What started as a mumble of words, the lyrics “deep down” rang over & over in my head amongst chords on my acoustic guitar. My inspiration stemmed from heartbreak and sadness of the realization that the love I held onto for so long, and longed for, was simply just not meant to be.
As the lyrics and the title call out, I had known it “deep down” for quite some time but I let denial blind me. There is so much truth and emotion in uncovering the “deep down” truth that it is a story I felt worth telling. When I showed the idea to producer Swagg R’ Celious, he helped me expand on this idea, sculpting the story and creating the imagery of me literally drowning in this deep end of emotions.
Trying to “catch my breath” in this ocean of tug-of-war riptides of love, I just couldn’t grasp onto the truth. Sometimes you need someone to help you frame up those feelings so that you can really expand on the depth of the storytelling.
After we finalized the melody and lyrics, I went to the studio and after a ton of vocal takes, we finally got the best version of the song with the rawest emotion giving this indie R&B ballad some soul & substance.
When concepting the video, I played along with this theme of living in the deep end. After long nights of picking my brain for the best visual, I finally decided I wanted to shoot in water. I knew this wouldn’t be the easiest thing to achieve with camera equipment, so I thought of a couple different options.
After hearing the final production, the piano was the obvious choice to include as the main prop in the video. Long story short, I found a broken grand piano online that was listed for free and set it in the Bronx River which is close to where I live in Highbridge, Bronx NY. It all sounded quite crazy to everyone I told, but thankfully I had an amazing team to help me execute the vision.
We successfully brought the piano to the middle of the Bronx River and with a little more hardship than we expected, we stayed there until sunset to get all the shots we needed. My videographer Steve Muelz and photographer Sesar Martinez definitely risked their cameras and lives for the shot! A few days passed, I documented the story on TikTok and had my first viral moment on that platform!
The video came out to be this beautiful piece of art to me & a memory I will never forget! I hope it connects with my fans and that they feel the emotion of it too.
Watch the video for “Deep Down” here and stream it everywhere else here.
Words by Annalise Azadian // Follow her on Twitter + Instagram
