Behind the scenes on Raria's new video 'Dude': “It’s definitely taught me a lesson to never put myself through that again…I hope others can take that lesson away & protect themselves.”

Raria has returned with the new single ‘Dude’, off the back of her impressive debut in 2021 which saw her release three singles plus debut EP Boys Who Broke My Heart, collecting close to 900k streams in the process. Her music is an addictive mix of pop, R&B and electro and with her personal, heartfelt lyrics has that relatable quality that makes you feel Raria is singing directly to you.

‘Dude’ continues in the R&B/pop lane but takes a more mellow, at times dreamy feel, with the lyrics remaining raw and honest as Raria relays the story of being in a relationship with someone who cannot emotionally commit.

“‘Dude’ is a song that I wrote when I started to fall very hard for my ‘situationship’. I didn’t intend to fall for him, but he sent me a lot of mixed signals,” she explains. “He would treat me like his partner, talk about our future together, but he was always emotionally unavailable; sometimes that can make you want a person even more. The saddest part was, I would always rather see him and feel like shit afterwards instead of cutting him out of my life completely. I think a lot of people will relate to this song. I always try to write about my life experiences as soon as they happen, so when he called me ‘dude’ after sex, I knew I had to write a song about it.”

Raria has also released a music video for ‘Dude’ and to celebrate has shared behind-the-scenes shots from the shoot exclusively with Women In Pop, coupled with commentary from Raria herself. Take a look below.

“The video for ‘Dude’ was shot around Fitzroy in Melbourne. I came up with the storyline for it and then I got my beautiful friend Nathan Smart to make it all come to life! I dressed up in a shirt and boots as if I was coming home from the night before. I really wanted to re-enact the whole experience I went through!”

“We hired this little cute Airbnb in Fitzroy that had all this retro furniture and the coolest kitchen I’ve ever seen. In this scene I wanted to capture that feeling of the morning after you’ve spent the night with someone you really like and you are anxiously waiting for them to text you.”

“It was a really collaborative process for the shoot. I pretty much directed it myself and Nathan Smart filmed and edited the video. We also had our friend Emilio helping out with BTS. So my little team of 3 worked so well together. It was really fun to go back to my roots and act, I grew up acting when I was younger for years. So it was so nice to challenge myself and do it all again.”

“We found it a little tricky filming in certain places for this shoot due to the world flipping on its head. So instead of filming in an Uber we resulted to filming on a train and it was so embarrassing because I was half dressed, all the carriages were full and everybody was staring at me… I just wanted to run hahaha!”

“I’ve always been a big ‘prop’ girl. I love designing video sets and making a room pop. I had sooo much fun decorating the Airbnb for this shoot. And I definitely felt very sick after eating all that cereal.”

“I wanted to film a ‘one take’ type video that was straight to the point. Showing exactly how this boy made me feel after leaving his house, and when I received the voicemail from him. It hurt sooooo much and I felt so stupid for going back every time…but looking back on this video it’s definitely taught me a big lesson to never ever put myself through that again. And I hope others can take that lesson away from it also and protect themselves.”

‘Dude’ is out now via TMRW Music. You can buy and stream here.

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