Video: Wallice, ‘Little League’

Kevin Bronson on February 16th, 2022

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After viewing the video for “Little League,” we’re not sure whether Wallice actually has game — but her competitive fires certainly burn hot, for better or worse.

The singer-songwriter — full name, Wallice Watanabe — took off a year and a half ago with her first two singles, “23” and “Punching Bag,” her humor and honesty matching the charm of the recordings.

The new single, made with collaborator David Marinelli, is more of the same. “‘Little League’ is about my love of games (board and video) and my competitiveness,” she says. “I also think people can relate to the fear of not being liked. I can hang out with a single friend for five days straight, and still each time they leave I feel like, ‘Oh no, they probably hate me because of something silly like being too competitive during a video game.’ This song was influenced by ‘Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi’ by Radiohead, a band I grew up listening to.”

Director Philip Stillwell’s frenetic video takes Wallice’s foibles and runs with them. “He did such an amazing job when we had previously worked on my ‘Hey Michael’ video last year,” Wallice says. “I knew he could execute the right balance of serious and funny within a short video. I knew I wanted to be playing tennis, baseball and a board game in the video, but he came up with the idea of translating the board game to real life — when we land on each space it launches a mini-game (kind of like my favorite video game Mario Party).

“I like to write about being an imperfect protagonist — being someone who is wrong and lets their faults show. I hope that comes through here as well.”

Batter up.

||| Watch: The video for “Little League”