Hey guys! Jesty here. Since a lot of you have heard about my collaboration with Evann McIntosh — I figured this would be a great time to share some background information about the project.
When I started making my own music under the name "Holy Mattress Money," it was a way to take all these musical ideas I had floating around my head and just get them out there. I wanted to use music as a way to collaborate with talented vocalists and musicians from all over the world.
Then in 2017, I discovered an amazing artist named Evann McIntosh. Her voice and talent really spoke to me. Evann and I began to collaborate, and I got the privilege to produce and distribute 3 critically-acclaimed singles with her. Then, in October of last year we released her debut album, MOJO.
Her song "What Dreams Are Made Of' gained a new wave of fans by going viral on TikTok, and subsequently peaked at #15 on the US Viral Charts on Spotify—all while amassing over 10 million streams.
About her hit single, Evann notes "'What Dreams Are Made Of is a song I wrote about the immediate high that comes with falling hi love with someone. The idea of the relationship rather than the reality of it."'
We’ve been on a creative and inspiring endeavor, Evann and I, and we wanted to push things forward. The next step was clear in our mind, we needed a video for this hit! So, it was back to the drawing board, searching for visual ideas. It was a big moment for Evann and I, so we made the decision to shoot the video entirely independently. It wasn’t easy, but our passion and work ethic pulled us through.
This was the first time that I would produce both a song AND a video. We wanted a visual medium that would match the feel of the song, something airy, light, and ethereal but at the same time with hints of darkness. Anyone familiar with the Little Nemo and Peter Pan cartoons from the 80's can see where the inspiration came from.
The video was shot by JR Strickland (Garth B, Adana Grande, Summer Walker) during Evann's first ever trip to Los Angeles earlier this year. He says, "The song is amazing and I wanted to create a piece that has many layers to it and match Evann's vibe. Her producer, Jesty Beatz, came to me with the idea of her flying through the clouds on her bed, and I built a deeper story with some subtext around that."
This video represents the culmination of talent, inspiration, and hard work needed to bring these projects to life. It’s been awesome adding to the team I hope you guys enjoy it!