Exclusive: Charlene Kaye premieres "Animal Love II" video
On the day of her new music video premiere for "Animal Love II," singer Charlene Kaye is feeling a little nostalgic.
"Actually, life has me back in the emotional state when I wrote this song two years ago," Kaye told CBSNews.com. "So this video is especially relevant and kind of overwhelming right now."
"Animal Love II" appears on the Hawaiian-born singer's 2012 sophomore release, "Animal Love," which hit No. 15 on the iTunes pop chart and garnered Kaye press from media outlets such as The New Yorker and VH-1, which described the her music as "a mix of glam rock and classical music in just the right measures."
"There's two songs that bookend the album -- the first song is 'Animal Love I' and the 'Animal Love II,' which is the last track," Kaye said. "The first part of that two-sister song series is very much a dance song about the excitement and the adventures that come with meeting somebody new and the feeling in your bones that this could be something larger than life. And 'Animal Love II' is more about new beginnings and trying to deal with what you have in front of you in order to rise from the ashes and start anew. With this song, I was thinking about how the body reacts to heartbreak and how challenging the human process can be when you're dealing with something so intangible."
While writing the song, Kaye said she thought a lot about the "science of love" and how it manifests itself physically. But not all love lasts forever. Heartbreak, Kaye muses, "is akin to a broken limb and a sort of sickness that takes over."
It's something that Kaye experienced herself: "I'm a Virgo -- I'm like, 'What do I do with this pain? How do I fix it?'Can you drown it about by drink, drugs, by sleeping with a stranger? Can you turn it around?' That physical feeling is what I tried to run with while writing the rest of the songs on the album. Writing from that place gave me true catharsis."
It's those emotions that Kaye poured into the making of her new video, which makes its debut Wednesday on CBSNews.com.
Directed by Kaye's sister, Liann Kaye, the clip speaks to hour people throughout history have tried to get over heartbreak. "There's madness, there's the devil, evil spirits and love," said Kaye.
Kaye's sister conceived the video initially as sort of "conversion therapy." "That's why we use hypnosis, scaring techniques and baptisms in the video," said Kaye, who now calls New York home. "There's a scene where I'm strapped to a chair with my eyes caked open where the nurses are forcing me to watch videos of me and my lover during happy times so I can just deal with it and not runaway from it and get it out of my body."
Kaye, who cites Queen, David Bowie and Rufus Wainwright as her influences, said she hopes the video ultimately conveys a message.
"The thing is, while we're illustrating a lot of grandiose treatments to cure somebody -- I hope people can also feel the hopelessness of all the procedures and that the message of the video is that conversion therapy doesn't work," she said. Love is love; no religious or medical procedure can alter or remove it, which can be both beautiful and sad."
Kaye has been on the road performing songs off her first two albums and will open for "Glee" star Darren Criss' at upcoming shows in New York City and Boston.
As for her music, Kaye said she simply wants it to be honest.
"When I'm excited, I think other people get excited, too, especially onstage...I want everything to be larger than life...I hope people feel changed after listening to or having gone to a show," Kaye said.
Tell us: What do you think about Kaye's new music video? Tell us in the comments below.
