Singer-songwriter Dama Vicke has always felt a connection to the world of film. Before her former band became known as Dear Darling, its name was Huma Rojo — a reference to the sought-after actress in Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother.
Though she does not have a formal acting background, Vicke shows off some convincing acting chops in her new video for "Point of Inflection." The song is a bitter anthem for people who've finally cut the cord on their on-again, off-again relationships.
"Wash all my kisses off/Off of your lips, off your skin, off your body," Vicke sings with a roar. "Don't think of me no more/Oh, it's an order!"
The video was shot in Miami with directors Carla Forte and Alexey Taran, whom she met when they collaborated on a live film score at O Cinema. In the video, Vicke takes on a creepy, gothic aesthetic, sitting in a dimly lit room while railing against her indecisive lover. She kisses him passionately one minute and then pushes his body away the next. Thinking she has escaped his grip at last, she jumps from his lap into a body of water, where she strips herself of her clothes and of her relationship baggage. He jumps into the water after her, and the push-and-pull begins once again.
The angsty "Point of Inflection" was inspired by the myriad of life-altering decisions that people make on the path toward personal growth in the face of adversity and struggle. After the breakup of her band a few years ago, Vicke embarked on a journey of self-discovery that lead her to other interests, but eventually back to music.
"Dear Darling ended in 2010. It ended just off the typical band drama. We're all still really good friends, but we were just trying to find different ways of keeping the band together and playing shows. Everybody had their own situation going on. As soon as we released the EP, it just ended. That happens to a lot of people," she laughs.
Though the split was a personal disappointment, Dear Darling ended amicably - one of her former bandmates even appears in her new video. Vicke’s handling of the break up is an illustration of what she says inspired the song and her new album overall - choosing happiness and moving forward in the face of self-doubt.
But making the choice to be happy is not always as simple as wishing it to be so. Some time later Vicke struggled with depression and what she calls “an existential crisis.”
"That's when I released a video on Facebook where I kind of opened up for the first time," she reflects. "After that project was over, I fell into this deep sadness and depression. I was lost and didn't know what to do. I stopped playing music for three and a half years. In my house, I would write and stuff, but I was just not really believing that I had talent."
Vicke's Facebook confessional elicited an impassioned wave of encouragement from friends and supporters, including from her guitarist husband, who motivated her to begin taking music seriously again. That's when she chose to channel her lingering disappointment into a solo project.
The collaboration with Taran and Forte has been so creatively successful for all parties involved that they're pulling a Beyoncé: They will shoot a video for each song on the forthcoming EP.
After overcoming her struggles with finding her place in the artistic community once again, Vicke has embraced collaboration.
"I gave them all the freedom to create the concept, which is something I'm enjoying about this new project," she says. "Everybody who's been part of these recordings had the freedom to do anything they wanted to do as long as it went with the song."
Dama Vicke
4 p.m. Saturday, February 4, at Studio Soir Pop-Up Boutique, 125 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-709-7133; studiosoir.com. Admission is free.
