A quiet strumming of a guitar leads the viewer down a road along a deserted field, passed swaying power lines and up to a quaint, abandoned house. “Your words fall as softly as a bomb and I survey the damage after you’re gone,” sings Kat Quinn, the opening line to her song “Phoenix.”
A phoenix is a mythological bird who can live for a long number of years until is burns up and dies but then gets reborn from its ashes. According to Dictionary.com a phoenix is often seen as “an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope.” Quinn brings this metaphor to life in her video.
Quinn sings about a love that has ended, one that was full of turmoil. The song is full of lines of contradiction like, “Your words fall as lightly as a brick, and I wish I hadn’t walked right under it,” and, “Your eyes are cozy like a kitchen knife, and I wish I hadn’t cut myself so many times.” You can hear the regret that she feels for having stayed in this unfortunate relationship for longer than she should have.
As Quinn sings words of regret, the video flashes scenes of the abandoned house. There are close up shots of the pine needles on the tree outside, the peeling paint from the siding of the house and shattered glass from the disintegrating windowpane. The video cuts back and forth from the desolate house to a wide-open field, Quinn smiling and dancing in circles. The addition of the black and white video of a couple in love adds a nice touch.
She ends the song on a positive note singing, “Your love saved me like a wild flame, but I won’t like in the ashes you laid. No I will rise stronger than yesterday.” Quinn is a phoenix that has been reborn, leaving behind the eroding house of her past and finding hope in the vast field of her dreams.
Article by: Merissa Blitz
