Marissa Nadler – “If I Could Breathe Underwater”
Marissa Nadler announced her new album Path Of The Clouds last month with the release of its murder ballad-inspired lead single “Bessie, Did You Make It?” Today, she’s sharing another new song called “If I Could Breathe Underwater,” a lush, zoned-out dream-state groove featuring harp from her longtime friend Mary Lattimore.
“When I wrote ‘If I Could Breathe Underwater,’ I was contemplating the possibilities of possessing various superhuman powers: teleportation, shapeshifting, energy projection, aquatic breathing, extrasensory perception, and time travel to name a few,” Nadler says. “As a lyrical device, I married those powers with events in my life, wondering if and how they could change the past or predict the future. I loved working on the melody for this song and bringing the choruses to their climaxes. Mary’s layered, hallucinatory shimmers really echo the netherworld of the story.”
The song’s appropriately dreamy music video was directed by Jenni Hensler. “This song took on many meanings to me and I love that about it. How beauty and tragedy collide,” Hensler adds. “Dreaming of having supernatural powers to change reality and have the ability to live and breathe underwater. It could also speak to the duality of existence. That we all have inner personas or shadow selves, and how we envision those different masks we wear. I chose to make something that touched on the idea of duality and the inner persona. To connect to the two worlds.”
Watch and listen below.
The Path Of The Clouds is out 10/29 on Sacred Bones/Bella Union. Pre-order it here.