A cold ocean cuts against a sun bleached rock and it’s there we meet our protagonist. Philadelphia’s Greya is poised in an orange coat, a splash of color against an otherwise muted background. This is the main visual for “Thrive”, a video Greya says “was inspired by chemistry.”
A beat (that kind of feels like a thread) will lead you into her sweeping vocals as the scene turns from an overcast day to a room filled with red light. It reflects the heat of the song, passion mixed with pain, as she pines over a love she wishes would be kinder. “…we wanted to accentuate the feelings that come with a toxic relationship and emulate them through various settings and emotions.”
Every frame of the video lends itself to the song and vice versa. It creates a story within the melody, begging you to dig a little deeper. If you do, you’ll find symbolism in everything from location to jacket choice. “You see me alone outside a gas station, going through a kind of mourning, contrasted with an ideal relationship, which we personified at the beach.”
The short flick only gets more immersive as the song reaches its crescendo. Greya’s voice rising to match the melody creates a hypnotic listening experience. “The reality sets in in the forehead to forehead shot, where you see the turmoil between Tony and me. I wrote ‘Thrive’ about a one-sided relationship.”
It’s clear in lyrics and aesthetics that this is a story of unrequited care, the kind of pain that can only come from a deep well of love. “The love interest is really the quintessential egomaniac, just in it for the validation he’s getting from the girl,” Greya explains the characters she’s created. “She just wants clarity and to feel like the effort she’s putting in is mutual, but like so many relationships, she’s getting used for how she makes him feel.”
“It’s kind of a merry-go-round of ‘I’ll do what I need to to keep you around, but not enough to make this healthy.’” The song connects because it’s more honest than an advice column, and it’s more vulnerable than it has any right to be when it bops this hard.
It’s hard to believe the video came together in just three days when it matches the tune so perfectly, but “Thrive” is the kind of magic you just can’t explain. Hit play below to watch as Greya ascends from songwriter to storyteller.
Fun fact about “Thrive”:
“It was primarily just us three women on either side of the camera charged with making a piece visually representative of a song about longing and frustration within romanticizing modern relationship dynamics.”
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