She’s done it again. From the get go, you know that since this is Brisbane’s golden lady Montgomery doing a piano version of Piñata, it’s going to make you feel some feels. So before you watch the following clip, I strongly urge you to grab a box of tissues and place them near you. Notorious for putting her guard up, this video offers very little footage of her actual face, forcing you to focus on the music itself. It’s a real treat.
The elusive Montgomery is charming hearts once again with her beautifully stripped back rendition of Piñata.
The piano Montgomery uses is completely deconstructed and is covered in pretty little fairy lights. Perhaps it’s meant to be a metaphor for the stripped back yet beautiful tone of Montgomery’s live voice in the clip. That’s right; this is not pre-recorded, pre-fiddled with or pre-anythinged. It is totally live, totally raw and totally harrowing.
The camera starts off steady and begins to pull in and out of focus as the video progresses, shifting your gaze from the old school microphone, to the keys beating against the strings, to the recording light. Intimacy in the darkened room the clip is set in, not to mention the bare vocals, is ironically dichotomized with the fact that we don’t see her full face in the clip at all, creating mysterious yet strangely intimate vibes. It begs you to ponder her enigmatic nature. Maybe it’s even a nod to Sia who knows. Either way her camera-shyness makes you want to know her, especially because she’s given you something so raw and personal in the track, brought to boiling point in the repetition of the self-referential lyrics “But you break me, yeah/ You break me”.
Holding the song up to the original is like comparing siblings who look alike but are into totally different things. For a start, the original track is faster, busier and the video seems to tell the story of people who want to say something but can’t. It does however solicit a similar response for the listener in that it’s as touching as anything, delicate and beautiful.
The original track is from her debut EP New Clear War out on I Oh You Records and this acoustic rework video offers something beautiful and simple yet technical and precise. While it’s completely different to the original, Montgomery’s piano rework of Pinata is a perfect example of her talent as a musician.
FIND OUT MORE ON