While it might not have the reputation of tequila, chances are that vodka isn’t your best friend either, regardless of what it tells you. Keonté Beals, on the other hand, has a new power ballad titled “Vodka x Me” all about a relationship with alcohol and its tendency to be used as an excuse for bad behaviour.
In an album that largely challenges many aspects of toxic masculinity, it’s unsurprising to hear Beals offering up a song that borders between hubris and cautionary tale.
Shot and directed by Benjamin Edwards at Black Harbour Distillers in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, “Vodka x Me” acts as something of a hype video. It borders on the edge of promotional materials, in that it’s always great until it isn’t anymore.
“[Edwards] and his whole crew did an amazing job at portraying the vision that I had for the song as a whole,” says Beals. “I remember walking into the bar for the first time and feeling like wow, this is the place. This is the whole vibe of the song and what I feel.”
Beals arrived at the song the hard way, on a hard morning after having a night out at the club.
“I was actually hungover at the time when I recorded the demo for the song and so my voice still had a raspy sound due to the effects of alcohol and getting only one hour of sleep before waking up with the urge to record/write,” explains Beal. “The storyline follows events that happened that night; just being in a sticky situation with somebody I was talking to at the time and using alcohol as a distraction to what I was really feeling.
“I can remember listening to the first demo of the song and not feeling like the music was aggressive enough. It didn’t feel like I felt that night and being in that moment of just being so angry and upset. I actually did this whole song over about three different times and ways.”
It was the third and final version of the song that appeared on Beals’ album KING earlier this year. Beals puts a wild energy into “Vodka x Me,” as if there’s an intensity that wants to take you to the brink, but you’ll never see the line until after you’ve crossed it.
“I can remember bopping to it in my room alone and just feeling like ‘this is it!’ It just felt so good and it channelled exactly what I felt that night. It was super simple but so hard and that raw feeling is what made me attracted to it the most.”