Australian R&B Newcomer Selasie Makes His Debut With Love-Torn Single “Unnatural”

Sydney-based artist Selasie has taken the next step into his music career with his label debut single “Unnatural”. Tapping into the ’80 synth-pop revival alongside acts such as The Weeknd and Majid Jordan, the 22 year old brings together emotive, brooding vocals with pulsating pop melodies, as he recounts a failed relationship.

“I didn’t want to come out just as a rap artist”, Selasie shares. “I wanted my first introduction to leave people guessing where I sit and what type of artists I am. This song doesn’t feel totally pop. It doesn’t feel totally R&B, it doesn’t feel totally rap either. ‘Unnatural’ is about heartbreak and missing someone, and not feeling the same after you go through something.”

The song was produced by long-time collaborator, Melbourne-based producer GXNXVS and was born out of a 5-day session last year. Selasie would often come down to Melbourne and stay at GXNXVS place, where they’d record as many demos as possible over a few days. ‘Unnatural’s creation was spontaneous – GXNXVS playing around with eerie beats and keys, and Selasie creating a fresh melody over the instrumentation.

For the lo-fi music clip, Selasie uses 8mm film to create a misty, nostalgic sentiment. Together with his manager and an old school camera, the duo worked on their first ever video clip. Filmed in various locations in and around Sydney and shot during the early hours of the morning, the vision was to keep the clip raw and authentic to the memories of the past love but avoiding the direction of a dark and eerie path.

Selasie says, “Had a lot of fun shooting this music video. It’s a first of many to come and proud of that fact we were able to bring the vision alive without a huge budget. We wanted it to feel reminiscent of a being in and out of a dream and reality concerning someone who you are falling out of love with and I think we did that in raw way. “

Manager and director, Sam Royce McIntyre says, “We wanted this video to reflect real-life compared to a staged production as it represents the dark cloud that follows us around when breaking up with your first love. It’s insight into the juxtaposition of joyful and sonder emotions that we feel simultaneously when we reflect on our memories with our recent ex love. We used moments of old film to create a dark dream-like state to imply the effect of him reminiscing throughout the clip. All of the digital performance shots are designed to return us to the present moment of Selasie explaining exactly how he’s feeling to his ex for the final time. I’m over the moon with how it turned out! Especially considering this is Selasie’s first ever music video performance and we filmed it independently with a 2-person crew with around $800 budget.”

Watch the music video below: