Nashville Singer-Songwriter and MTV’s Real World and Challenge alumnus Davis Mallory recently released the music video for his latest single, “Dance With Me.”.
The music video was shot with a vintage look in mind and references a retro-70s era pop style in wardrobe. The goal was to create something that feels old yet new.
“I worked with Micah Atkinson, film student graduate of the Watkins Film School and director of the music video for my song ‘Not That Far Away,’” said Mallory. “Micah dreamt up the different scenes for the video.”
A rose motif was used throughout the video and manifests itself throughout many scenes. A wall with projections of falling rose petals and blooming roses, Mallory holding a rose as his silhouette displays on a screen, and roses dispersed around his body as he’s talking to someone through a rotary dial telephone are just a few instances.
Several aesthetic features inadvertently made their way into the video the day of the shoot.
“I did not intend to have a mustache; however, shaved one on the day of the shoot and liked the way it looked so kept it for the video,” Mallory said. “My friend and publicist (David Garcia) wore a cool jacket with fringe. He was modeling behind the curtain, and we saw how cool it looked, and I wound up wearing his jacket.”
“Dance With Me” was officially released on March 7. It is an electropop track co-written by Mallory and produced by French DJ Loic Penillo. It was released under French record label Sidekick Music. The song is about the potential for love that exists when you first ask someone to dance with you.
Mallory wrote “Dance With Me” as a topline over an instrumental sent by Penillo. Both artists met before attending Amsterdam Dance Event.
“I wrote ‘Dance With Me’ in September 2017 at a time in my life when I'd been single for a while and, admittedly, felt lonely as evidenced in the lyrics,” Mallory said. "’I'm lost in the lonely, but it's too hard to show it’ – ‘My head gets caught in the moment, but my heart doesn't know it’ references my tendency to fall in love quickly with a cute guy but realizing I need to slow things down and be ready for the right person.”
“In the bridge, I referenced one of my favorite songs off Britney Spears’ album Glory, "Hard to Forget Ya" - ‘You're on my mind, I just can't forget ya’ ([Spears’ lyrics] are: ‘there's something about you, I just can't forget ya’)”
“Dance With Me” is Mallory’s first release in 2018 and follows his many successes the year prior. Mallory signed singles to record labels for the first time in 2017. Landis’ “Loud (feat Davis Mallory)” dropped on Grammy-nominated French producer Cedric Gervais’ Delecta label and earned him a Spotlight Artist feature on the label’s website. This was followed by a collaboration with Swedish producer John Dahlback (Lady Gaga, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii) on a release titled “Anyone Would Know,” a cornerstone of Dahlback’s Color In My Heart EP on Armada Records. His debut EP, LOUD, was released on July 7, 2017, and spawned music videos for the title track, “Be Without You”, and “Because of Love”, which nabbed a feature on EDM powerhouse blog YourEDM. He toured the US after the EP’s release - kicking off at Milwaukee Pride (alongside Betty Who & Todrick Hall) and performing in Nashville, LA & NYC. Mallory's hard work and touring in conjunction with the publicity his album garnered set off a snowball effect - his social media channels began seeing a spike in traffic, leading to “Loud” and “Somebody’s Watching”, a release separate of his EP, surpassing 250,000 listens on Spotify and still rising.
Click here to watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1sLkwV0bu4