Exclusive: Watch Half Waif’s Bone-Chilling “Frost Burn” Video

Brooklyn synth-pop performer Nandi Rose Plunkett, aka Half Waif, has a scenic new video for “Frost Burn,” which is available to watch exclusively on Paste. Taken from her recently released form/a EP and directed by Emily Dubin (PWR BTTM, Pinegrove), the clip depicts Plunkett alternating between two settings—in some shots, she’s wandering through the chilly, snow-laden outdoors, and in others, she’s cozying up with tea and blankets, as one should naturally do after a sub-zero outdoor jaunt.

“The music video for ‘Frost Burn’ was filmed at the same house and property where it was written, which is a house in the Berkshires, the region where I grew up,” Plunkett tells Paste in an email. “Emily and I decided it would be a good idea to return there to shoot, since the lyrics deal with confronting the past.

“We took the line from the chorus — ‘and on my island / I cannot keep out all the violence’ — and used that to guide the imagery,” she continues. “We wanted to convey the idea that even when we try to build our own personal islands to protect ourselves from our past, ultimately the violence of our memories cannot be shut out. So there’s the brewing of tea—an act of comfort and coziness — that overlaps with an outdoor picnic in sub-zero weather. And there’s the fort built with blankets, a physically protective structure, that feels hollow and childish in the context of adulthood. In the video, I get to revisit the house where the song was born, while simultaneously reflecting on revisiting my past in that very area, where the woods and the cold and the sweet New England houses trigger so many memories. Standing on the edge of a frozen river in nothing but a dress, internal and external weather assaulting the body and mind.”

Watch Plunkett’s “Frost Burn” video above, and check out her live dates below.

Half Waif Tour Dates:

March
28 — Montreal, Quebec @ Vitrola
29 — Burlington, Vt. @ Arts Riot
31 — Baltimore, Md. @ Joe Squared

April
01 — Richmond, Va. @ Strange Matter
02 — Raleigh, N.C. @ King’s
03 — Washington, D.C. @ DC9
05 — Boston, Mass. @ Middle East Upstairs
06 — New York, N.Y. @ The Silent Barn
07 — Philadelphia, Pa. @ Everybody Hits