Antigoni Debuts Strikingly Emotive Visuals To ‘This Ain’t Love’

Exploring the volatility of love, singer Antigoni approaches her listeners, with a touch of vulnerability, offering anecdotes of personal past loves, in her latest single ‘This Ain’t Love’. Travelling through an adrenaline packed selection of cinematic visuals from a fiery boxing match, concentrated poker game and whirlwind car race, the video, directed by Eden Tarn with creative direction and styling by Roisino, takes us on a symbolic ride through the heavy array of emotions shared by Antigoni in this track.

Taking on a raw and direct approach with ‘This Ain’t Love’, the fierce track is an intimate insight into lust and passion, exploring the pain and regret that comes along with relationships built on toxicity. Complimenting Antigoni’s powerful vocals, the project offers a refreshing, honest and real take on the nature of contemporary relationships, standing out from the sea of traditional love songs.

Get an exclusive look at the making of the new music video, as we speak to Antigoni about the intricate details, concept and story behind ‘This Ain’t Love’ below.

‘This Ain’t Love’ offers a very raw insight into the nature of love, what is the story behind the track? Can you pinpoint where the inspiration for this track originated?

The song for me is about being caught up in an intense feeling and wanting to enjoy the highs of ‘love’ so much that you’re willing to take the lows that might inevitably come with it afterwards. I put ‘love’ in quotations because this story is more about lust and a kind of toxic passionate situation rather than actual love. I guess the inspiration comes from the idea of wanting to feel so deeply that you’re reckless with your emotions for the sake of living in the moment.

The song obviously comes from a very personal experience in your life, how does it feel being so open with your listeners?

I feel like all the best music stems from something real. For me songwriting is about storytelling & capturing a thought or emotion – even if it’s fleeting – and zooming in on that and exploring it. As I write more and get more comfortable with releasing music I definitely am putting a lot of myself out there and there’s something scary but also exciting about that.

The ‘This Ain’t Love’ music video is split into three sections, a boxing ring, poker game, and car race. What do each of these visuals represent for the track?

Pretty soon after writing the song I had this concept of a couple that tries to challenge and outdo each other, pushing themselves to the limit & representing that they are bad for each other.

I’ve worked on my last few videos with an incredible director called Eden (Made In Eden) and we crafted out the 3 scenes, upping the stakes in each round. I win the first round, taking the K.O. in the ring haha and then Miles takes the second round, winning my car keys in the poker match. We purposely didn’t have a winner in the car race because we wanted to symbolise the idea that no one actually wins when it comes to these sort of toxic situationships.

How has this track progressed from your previous releases? How can we see your sound developing in this song?

I feel like this track has a rough rawness to it that I’ve always wanted to come through in my music. I love to have that contrast of heavy beats with live instrumentation, it was produced by Jakwob & Dean Barratt who really nailed that. This song is the last of a collection of songs we did together and rounds off the last few singles. I have another body of work in the pipeline that takes my sound into a place I’m really excited about so you’re going to see that development for sure.

Are there any secret underlying messages in the song or video that we might not have picked up on?

There’s reasons behind how we chose the order of the scenes in order to reflect the lyrics. For example ‘Match made in hell’ linked well to the boxing match and ‘Daring my inner rebel into gambling with my heart’ perfectly lined up with the poker game.

What’s your favourite lyric from the track? Why?

My favourite lyric is ‘Let’s be honest we’re a match made in hell’ I just like this lyric cos it flips the cliché idea of ‘match made in heaven’ and kind of summarises the idea that this couple is the opposite of that.

How do you think ‘This Ain’t Love’ will resonate with your listeners? Is there a particular message you aim to portray through the song?

The song is about being purposely blind to the fact that something likely isn’t going to end well but thinking the pleasure of the moment is worth it. The lyric in the chorus literally says ‘if this ain’t love, I don’t wanna know, cos I love the way it feels, i don’t care if it’s not real’ – it’s definitely not the wisest thing to do haha but I think a lot of people have made consciously reckless decisions in their life before for the sake of pleasure & experience, so I feel like people will relate to that.

What emotions would you say you relate to ‘This Ain’t Love’?

Lust, passion, excitement, pain, regret

What else can we expect to see from you following on from ‘This Ain’t Love?’

I’m currently working on a project that I am sooo excited and proud of, I feel like I’ve finally solidified my sound and have tapped into my Greek heritage a lot too so that makes it all the more personal and special to me. So buzzing to share that with you so hold tight!!