Philadelphia singer-songwriter Saleka Night Shyamalan is back with another visual masterpiece–this music video called “The Sky Cries”–directed by her father, M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense).
“I was very intimidated and nervous leading up to the shoot because there were a lot of physical logistics with the choreography,” Saleka shared with Just Jared. “I’ve never been directed by my dad before, but once we were on set it actually felt really natural. He always emphasizes the emotional intention over everything. Since I wrote the song, we were able to easily talk about the meaning of each line, how it connects to the movement and contributes to the arc of the overall video.”
Harry Potter star Rupert Grint makes a brief cameo at the end of the video. What’s the connection? He stars in the Apple TV+ series Servant, which is executive produced by M. Night. The song is also featured in episode 8 of the hit show, out now. Watch the video below!
Philadelphia singer-songwriter Saleka Night Shyamalan joined music and cinematic forces with her dad, famed director M. Night Shyamalan and her younger sister Ishana Night, for the video her new soulful and sultry single “Mr. Incredible.”
“The music video came together from a combination of inspiration,” 24-year-old Saleka shared with Just Jared. “My sister Ishana (who directed it), my dad (who produced it), and I were drawn to the idea of a woman whose partner is always half present- almost ghost like. I kept coming back to the image of this couple living in a house that is abandoned and falling apart around them. We ended up finding the perfect location. In our first visit to the house we brought a speaker and played the song as we walked through, and something clicked. While scary and unsettling, its structure was majestic and enticing, and there was beauty in the way it was falling apart- the faded colors and cracked mirrors, the textures of the wallpaper as it crumbled off the walls, the vines growing in through broken windows… It was a true visual embodiment of how I felt in that relationship, the coldness and loneliness coalescing with enchantment and potential. My attempt to create love and comfort and home that had been neglected. That house really oriented the whole video. The costumes drew from colors in the house, the scenes/shots and choreography were mapped out by the rooms and feelings of each space.” Watch the dark love story below!
Saleka – Mr. Incredible (Official Music Video)
“The idea of the doppelgängers came from a painting in my parent’s room,” added Saleka, who is a classically trained Indian-American musician.”There is a woman dancing, and a slightly more caricatured version of her doing the same movement behind her. This inspired the idea of having me split into different version of myself through the video that each become progressively less and less human looking, to represent the fragmentation of self. My sister and I grew up watching scary movies (not surprising probably), and it is something that always bonded us and sparked our creativity. We would read each other scary stories and make up our own as kids. This music video became a perfect amalgamation of our love of haunted houses and eerie things, and our passion for music, dance, and empowering the female point of view through art.”
Director and sister Ishana noted, “The house we shot in dictated most of our creative choices. From the moment we stepped into that dilapidated mansion, we could feel its history, its beauty, and it’s sadness. It was the perfect representation of the kind of relationship being talked about in ‘Mr. Incredible’. The broken stairs, the peeling paint, and the weariness of the structure all represent what it feels like to be in a relationship with an emotionally unavailable partner. I think the house inspired us all. From there, the visual choices seemed instinctual. When we put it all together in the space for the first time, the costumes, choreography, set pieces, the shots, there was undeniable alchemy. You could feel the house come alive – and it became a character of its own.”
“Writing songs is my way of processing and channeling emotions in moments of struggle,” Saleka also told Just Jared. “‘Mr. Incredible’ came from my desperation to communicate with and be close to a person who was unstable and always on the verge of leaving, and my internal breakdown that resulted from that tumultuous and unrequited love. Although it is told from one point of view, I wanted the song to speak to both sides of this relationship- what it feels like to try and get through to someone dealing with depression, and what it feels like to be unable to let someone in.”
Saleka added that the song is “about relationships and mental health, and their deep influence on one another. It is the story of a couple whose love is stifled by their inability to communicate. It is told through the voice of a woman who is trying desperately to reach and understand a partner who is constantly falling into depression and seems to always be slipping away from her. She is enamored by the little pieces of him she gathers, and intrigued by the way he sees the world, but he always keeps himself at a distance and loving him is like chasing a ghost. In trying to keep him close she instead ends up fragmenting her own self and mental health. The relationship is also represented through the idea of home. While our protagonist longs for a place of comfort and belonging, the inability to build on and nurture a connection leaves them in a space that is cold, empty, and falling apart egregiously around them. Just like their love, it is an abandoned skeleton of something beautiful that could have been.”
Saleka‘s father M. Night has said, “I’m super tough on my daughters. I demand a lot of them as artists and as people.” Demand he has, deliver they have!
