Mamii releases fantastic new version of “Unwary”+ Music video
Somewhere out in the hills overlooking the City of Angels there sat two amazing musicians. One was a gifted songstress, and the other an amazing violinist. Together under the dark mantle of a peaceful night sky, they performed a special song for the bugs and the stars.
This kind of magical story does happen in real life. we’re talking of course about Mamii and her newest unplugged music video for her highly-acclaimed single “Unwary”.
The original song is a part of Mamii’s 2021 debut album “Black Phoeniix, The Rebirth” and it was originally a soothing track that floated inside its electronic production. This new video version truly unplugs the song from its dependence on synthetic studio elements and instead relies on the earthy elegance of acoustic elements to drive its themes home.
Thematically, Unwary is as it’s always been: about wanting to move on but being wary about what the consequences of taking that plunge might be. “I wrote this song about yearning to end a relationship and starting over but not being ready to face what life is going to be afterward.” confesses the artist, and while that message was clear the first time around, I can’t help but feel much more in tune with this acoustic version due to the way it lets the emotions manifest.
Mamii’s voice is of course ever so enchanting, but the new arrangement allows for a more intimate way to approach the song. There’s far less “trickery” or effects involved due to the format, removing a layer of “glamour” that the original track had, replacing it instead with this bare emotional sincerity that feels much closer and warmer, something that Mamii herself seems to agree with, stating “The song hit me in a different way when I started playing it acoustically and I wanted to capture that energy with a live video. We kept the recording really simple to feel as intimate as possible…”
Rather than make it a one-woman performance, Mamii recruited the help of her friend, an amazing multi-instrumentalist by the name of Jaylon Black, whose violin elevates the whole duet greatly by engaging in a romantic and bohemian love affair with Mamii’s steel strings, this breaks the song away from its dreamy electro-pop paradigm, only to return it perfumed with notes of Bossa Nova and indie Folk.
For Mamii Enthusiasts, this release will probably remind them of 2019’s “Not an EP”, particularly of songs like “Grlfrnd” and “Gimme Time/Solo”, which goes to show just how significant that acoustic alt/indie feeling remains for the artist in the light of such an electro-leaning album like “Black Phoeniix…”. If anything, this is just proof of the versatility and emotive capacity this Powerhouse Singer and Songwriter.