With the release of her new single “Costs a Lot,” Halifax-based songwriter and Alt-RnB/Pop artist, Nicole Ariana says that there are two sides to every break-up and it’s just a matter of perspective as to whether you see it as a loss or an opportunity. But even opportunities have their cost.
Co-written with Breagh Isabel, “Costs a Lot” takes a looks at the toll that a relationship can take, and what it takes to come back from it.
“Costs a Lot” was written on the edge of a precipice. The single is practically a tug-of-war over the outcome of a relationship as the song works out “what’s best” for Nicole Ariana. Two weeks after the song was written, she and her boyfriend of four years would be broken up.
“He was on tour and things just felt so distant. I had a session with my good friend Breagh Isabel and this song just came pouring out of me,” says Nicole Ariana. “When I got to her home studio, I vented to her about the situation. Then Breagh played a jazzy RnB track she had started producing for the session with my artist project in mind, and ‘Costs a Lot’ was born.”
Despite the sombre tones the song gives off, for Nicole Ariana, it represents a necessary change that would be the first step towards a period of personal growth.
“I love that it’s raw and written straight from the heart, with another female who I have known my whole life. It feels very special to me,” says Ariana. “Even though it was a hard thing to go through, I’m much happier now, and I know my ex is too. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned, but every relationship is a lesson and opportunity to grow. There’s still a lot of love there.
“I love a good breakup song. We’ve all been through the motions of heartbreak and they can be so relatable and just what you need when you’re in the depths of one. It may not always be the best remedy, but I am a self-proclaimed sad girl.”
According to Ariana, her two favourite breakup songs are “I Don’t Wanna be your girl” by Wet and “Flesh Without Blood” by Grimes. She says she has listened to both songs a thousand times; finding each of them to be soothing in their own way. However, they both belong to a very different genre than her own music and, instead, she draws a more organically chill and jazz vibe from artists like Portishead and Etta Bond and The Internet.
“The song feels somewhat vintage to me in its jazzy elements so we went for a more old school lo-fi visual.”
The accompanying video also captures those jazzier elements with an old-school lo-fi visual, conceptualized by Nicole and co-directed alongside award-winning director Gavin MacLean.
As is often the case with any breakup, it comes with baggage; and in this case particular it is Ariana’s collection of potted plants and the assorted belongings she’s moved into an old motel in the wake of the disaster. The video rides along on the rollercoaster of emotions, through a respectable number of the stages of grief with a side of loneliness thrown in for good measure.
“There were so many music videos I’ve filed away over the years that I love and many of them happened to be based in motels. The old run-down kind,” says Ariana. “So, when I started thinking about a video for the song I pictured moving into a motel after a breakup with my house plants and all my stuff, with nowhere else to go. Somewhere to escape and wallow.”
The motel itself becomes something of a focal point in the video, because, as Ariana points out, you haven’t truly lived until you have a solid motel room story. In the video, it’s practically a stand-in for the state of Ariana’s soul as she licks her wounds, but it’s also a launching station for whatever comes next. As chill as “Costs a Lot” is, it’s not without a glimmer of hope.
Then again, sometimes it seems like it might just be easier to fall in love with an old motel…
“Costs a Lot” is the first single to be released off of Nicole Ariana’s upcoming EP CRYBABY, due out in 2022.
Show Dates:
11.05.21 – Truro, NS – NSMW