Marissa Nadler has shared her new single “If I Could Breathe Underwater” with a music video alongside it. The track is set to be featured on her recently announced upcoming album The Path of the Clouds.
“If I Could Breathe Underwater” is smooth and transposing. The consistent instrumental allows the song to hold an overall calming feeling throughout its entirety. Nadler’s friend, Mary Lattimore, is also featured on the track where she contributes harp.
“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. 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,” said Nadler in a press release.
The music video for the track easily matches the aura of the song itself. Nadler is shown in a long white dress underwater and also in a green woodsy setting. The “If I Could Breathe Underwater” music video alludes to a supernatural existence as Nadler weightlessly floats underwater and unites with the variety of colors shown throughout.
Jenni Hensler, director and editor of the music video, stated, “This song took on many meanings to me and I love that about it. How beauty and tragedy collide. 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 the two worlds.”
Nadler’s forthcoming album The Path of the Clouds is due to be released October 29 on Sacred Bones and Bella Union. Upon sharing the news of