Nessa Barrett Lets Her Intrusive Thoughts Run Free on ‘Bang Bang!’
Nessa Barrett is guilty as charged! On Friday, the pop-rock musician released her catchy single “Bang Bang!,” which follows the singer as she confesses to getting “intrusive thoughts” about wanting to kill an ex. And she’s willing to admit: “If you think this song is about you, it is.”
The black-and-white video sees Barrett posing for a mugshot as she sings about using a crowbar to shut her ex-man up, and channeling her rage as visuals of crashed cars flash onscreen.
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“And I’ll blow a little kiss to your mommy and your dad/I’ll tell them that you fell when I push you off the roof,” she sings. “I’ll send you to Hell and your new bitch too.”
Barrett says she wrote the song about the rage she experiences at times as a result of her struggle with borderline personality disorder.
“There’s times where I just get so mad that I think about the craziest things I want to do in that moment, I feel like everyone deep down has intrusive thoughts even though they don’t want to admit it,” she says.
Barrett has been candid about facing BPD and why she hopes to break the notion that every music star has a picture-perfect life. “I wish that I had a person that was releasing music or openly advocating for mental health, to [help me] realize that there’s a lot of people that go through it,” she previously told Seventeen. “If I saw an artist that was successful and they still dealt with mental health, then I would have known it was okay for me as well.”
She also tweeted in early February about being misdiagnosed first as bipolar before being treated for BPD, saying that she hoped people who suffered from the same mental illness as her can feel connected and unashamed: “at first i didn’t know if i should be embarrassed or ashamed, but i’ve realized that i have an incredible platform and i’m going to use it to the best of my ability.”
“Bang Bang” is Barrett’s first single of the year and the follow-up to her album Young Forever, which she released last year. The LP featured songs like “Die First,” “Madhouse,” and “Dear God.” To celebrate the album, Barrett is heading on a U.S. tour at the end of the month, stopping at venues like New York’s Terminal 5 and Los Angeles’ Fonda Theatre.
Nessa Barrett “Young Forever Tour Dates:
Feb 22 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Feb 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Feb 25 – Houston, TX @ RISE Rooftop
Feb 26 – Dallas, TX @ HOB – Cambridge Room/Echo Lounge & Music Hall
Feb 28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Mar 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
Mar 3 – Washington, D.C. @ The Anthem
Mar 5 – New York @ Terminal 5
Mar 6 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner
Mar 8 – New York @ Irving Plaza
Mar 9 – New York @ Irving Plaza
Mar 11 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
Mar 13 – Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank
Mar 14 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
Mar 16 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
Mar 17 – Magna, UT @ The Great Saltair
Mar 19 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
Mar 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
Mar 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
Mar 25 – Hollywood, CA @ Palladium
Aug 23 – Wetherby, UK @ Reading and Leeds Festival
Aug 27 – Wetherby, UK @ Reading and Leeds Festival
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