Video premiere: Mermaed, ‘Honest’

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Last year, Los Angeles alt-rock upstarts Mermaed made a splash with their debut single “Idiot.” The duo, formed in 2017 by longtime collaborators Arielle Ackford (vocals, piano, guitar) and Jacob Evergreen (guitar, vocals) immediately came up on the radar of KROQ’s “Locals Only,” where they would end up establishing themselves with three consecutive weeks at the No. 1 slot.

Coming down from their collective high, Mermaed fired back with their new single, the deliciously rebellious and anthemic “Honest,” off their forthcoming debut EP “I Know You Are But What Am I?” (due mid-July). Radio-ready with a chorus that has Ackford’s voice soaring somewhere around near-earth orbit, “Honest” showcases powerhouse production from Jon Joseph (BØRNS, Jason Mraz) and mixing by Carlos de la Garza (Bad Religion, Teenage Wrist, Wolf Alice). Look past the bona fides, and you’ll find “Honest” isn’t just audio veneer — but rather a battle cry, rallying against the iniquities faced by women in the music industry: “Standing my ground / the bitter truth is all I promise / if I’m a ‘bitch’ at least I’m honest.”

“In the recent past, I’ve let myself be manipulated and warped into something I was not, am not, and will never be. Now, I’m using my music to bite back,” Ackford says. Expanding on this, the Michael L. Costa-directed video depicts the progressive manipulation and ultimate erasure of a band by its industry handlers. “We show the progression of a band growing, getting people involved and being completely manipulated and dismantled — all because they let people in that didn’t understand them, she says. “All of the things that happen in the video have happened to us or to friends of ours, and all of these shitty things are issues we want to call out and be a voice against because we are tired of that music culture.”

It’s a death by a thousand cuts. The video culminates in a full cathartic freakout, with Ackford figuratively and quite literally destroying the place in an act of self-reclamation. With “Honest,” Mermaed deliver medium and message in an uncompromising ear-worm package that’ll have you hitting repeat.

||| Watch: The video for “Honest”

||| Also: Stream “Idiot”