Inside Taraneh's Dreamscape
Pretty, like all words, has a history. Seemingly harmless yet rooted in a narrative of power and control. Taraneh channels this in her own song of the same name. Released originally in her bittersweet album, A Fleeting Feeling (2022), she returns with a video that mirrors the song's melancholic melody. She sings hauntingly over drop-tuned guitars and drums reminiscent of 90s lo-fi acts, as if to suggest that the scene is not married to a specific moment in time. She subverts the notion of pretty as a signifier by using the word ironically, as evident when she sings, "Oh, you like my hair, thank GOD." If you couldn’t tell within the first ten seconds of the video, she couldn't care less what you think. The same goes for her clones, a distillation of own dimensions.
Inspired by an eerie dream and Diamanda Galas’ "Double Barrel Player," Taraneh and her doubles crawl, sulking, smoking, holding hands, and dragging around idly in the dingy studio. They don't seek validation; they'd probably laugh if you offered it. By the end of the video, the distinction between the girls — Taraneh, Thoom, Comet, and Miss Madeline — melts away; each could be any girl, just as tired of being met with the same boring compliment.
Video Credits
- Directed by Taraneh and Nat Cherry
- Shot by Nat Cherry
- Creative Direction by Taraneh
- Edited by Nat Cherry and Taraneh
- Starring Taraneh, Zeynab Marwan, Comet and Miss Madeline
- Set design and paintings by Bobby Morebed
- Styled by Bobby Morebed
- "Pretty" by Taraneh on all streaming platforms
- Written by Taraneh Azar
- Produced by Taraneh Azar and James Duncan
- Bass performed by James Duncan
- Drums performed by Jakarri Kent
- Mixed by James Duncan
- Mastered by Justin Termotto
‘Pretty’ is typically used as a compliment. What is the song about? Are you addressing someone in particular with the lyrics?
The word ‘pretty’ doesn’t mean much to me other than a low-effort compliment. Maybe even a diss. I think that’s a central part of this song. I wrote it when I was 19 and realized that beauty won’t save me, that beauty won’t save us. Or maybe it will, who knows. In some ways it’s about that, but more than anything for me, it’s a song about power and control. I think most things boil down to matters of power and control. It’s rather straightforward and the lyrics are pretty direct, but I’m asking a lot of questions in the song to no one in particular that I don’t really care to hear the answers to — rhetorical questions, if you will. The lyrics are flexible and fluid enough to land with people how they want them to, or how they will, I should say. But I also just love exploring the concept of beauty, you know? We live and die for it. And it’s like sand through your fingers. That’s a crazy concept to me.
The lyrics are repetitive, almost like an anthem, or a chant, heightened by the repetitiveness of the video. You also include a single line that refers to your own hair and the outfits you wear. Why was that?
The song is like a trance to me. A trance that swells and then falls apart and I think a lot of my music is kind of trance-like. That’s a big inspiration always in my work, this notion of submitting to the trance. So the repetitive lyrics and visuals are meant to service that objective in a way.
I got the idea for the music video in a dream I had a few months back, where I saw a bunch of faceless clones of myself and I was their leader. I had recently been talking to Comet who's in the video about this concept of a costume and I realized that my hair and the way I dress is so conducive with that notion. It can be a costume. I think that's probably why I had the dream in the first place. It’s funny because that being said, the video is in many ways built around the concept of a costume that centers my hair and the clothes I wear, but the lines about my clothes and hair in the song are pretty obviously sarcastic. ‘Oh you like my hair, thank GOD.’ Just like ‘pretty’ is a low-effort compliment, ‘I like your hair’ or ‘I like your style’ is just as low-effort to me if not more. Which is fine, it’s just boring, even if it’s honest.
Does each girl in the video — you, Thoom, Miss Madeline, and Comet — represent a different part of you?
I wouldn’t say that they necessarily represent different parts of me, but I think we could frame everyone featured in the video as some representation and distillation of power. The girls in the video are some of my closest friends. I wanted the video to be kind of a depiction of my life in a way but dialed up to the point of theatrics, so I wanted to involve my friends. It only felt right. But then I also happen to have very powerful friends — we’re a very powerful bunch. I think in some ways power can be distilled down into an archetype. It’s a feeling, a state of being more than an attribute. And if you embody it, it’s true.
It’s almost like you capture this universality around the word “pretty” and how it’s used to refer to women in a very specific context, is the video meant to defy that?
Yes and no. I think many things are as good or bad as we want them to be. I personally care about and value beauty, but I think beauty is and can be many things. Just like I care about and value ugliness, which also is and can be many things. I think more than anything it’s about making a concept your own. Both the video and the song are really meant to provide people with what they need when they find it. I think that things find us when we need them to and we see them the way that we want to. Disorientation, empowerment, inspiration, disgust, offense. Whatever. As long as people watching take away something, anything.
There’s also a dark, grungey feel with the lo-fi camera and overall dim lighting. Was this purposeful or an extension of this dream you had?
I like visual media that you can’t necessarily place temporally. At least right now that’s something I really gravitate toward. The video is really a glimpse into my dreamscape, you know? This video is based on this dream I had and ultimately I wish I could have just screen recorded my dream because it looked really cool there but I couldn't so we made the video instead. This is pretty close to what I saw, though, which is great.
Actually, I originally wanted the video to be the same concept but in stop-motion with Barbies like in that Todd Haynes Karen Carpenter biographical film “Superstar” but with all the Barbies dressed like me. I still love that concept but thought it would be cool to first explore this idea of a character and costume on myself and my friends. But those quick cuts are with stop motion in mind. I love the Diamanda Galas music video for her song “Double Barrel Prayer.” That was a big inspiration for the video and informed a lot of the lighting choices in particular. I was just watching it a bunch before we started filming “Pretty” and I wanted to pull in some references from that. I like how stripped down the concept is in that video and you can see just this really strange bizarre character in Galas which I admire and really relate to in many ways. I watched it with Nat Cherry who shot the “Pretty’” music video and there’s this performance shot in “Double Barrel Prayer” that we thought would be cool to draw from. Minimal set, simple layout. Drastic lighting. We shot it at my friend Bobby’s place who’s a really cool painter and we turned his studio into a ‘stage.’ It’s where we always hang out and I dressed how I always dress and wanted it to reflect the image in my head and I think we nailed it. High budget videos are cool, of course, but sometimes you don’t need much to get across what you’re trying to say. That’s a big inspiration.
Your stage name translates to 'melody' or 'song' in Farsi. Tell me a little bit about how your Iranian upbringing influences your work.
My given name is Taraneh, it’s the name my parents chose for me. And I was named based on this dream that my dad had before I was born. Not to be too heady or anything, but in some ways I view it as a prophecy of sorts and think it would’ve been a waste to not use it as my stage name as well. The word ‘Taraneh’ is used in a lot of Persian lyricism. Growing up I’d always get so excited when I heard it in songs. I always felt like they were singing for me. I grew up between Cleveland, Ohio and Tehran, Iran. But in Cleveland, I didn’t know any other Taranehs. It was cool hearing a stranger sing my name.
My Iranian upbringing and background influences my work and the way that I frame the world in every way. It’s inextricably tied to who I am and therefore the work I make. Iranians are poets and romantics and revolutionaries. We care about freedom and liberation and self-determination and pleasure — or at least I do. And of course religion plays a pretty central role in post-revolution Iranian society so I play with a lot of religious iconography in my visual work.
This video is no exception — there are a lot of religious overtones in this video. It made sense to throw a niqab in there. I’m sure many people will find it offensive that I’m juxtaposing an objectively very sexy outfit with probably the most modest Islamic covering that exists. But beauty has always been weighed against religion for me growing up. Modesty and sexuality always went head-to-head. It’s worth laying out for me. There’s a cross in the video too — there’s certainly a lot of meaning to glean but I don’t think it’s worth overexplaining.
What's next for Taraneh?
Power and control.
