November, 2020, was a pretty busy month for Toronto, ON singer-songwriter/actress Melanie Peterson. After sharing the single and accompanying music video for “Back to You” exclusively here at GDW, Melanie also released her outstanding six-track EP, “We Got This,” along with an online release party from her Toronto home with partner Peter Collins (bass) and “Lucky” Pete Lambert (drums). And after a brief pause for the holidays, we are delighted to debut the music video for Melanie’s latest single, “Damaged Goods,” here with you today.
This third single from the EP sees Peterson teaming once again with producer Mitch Girio and GRAMMY-nominated engineer Joao Carvalho (Rose Cousins), and entrusting the accompanying music video to the hands and vision of talented local director, Mihaly Szabados. The video commences with Melanie waking up alone in her Toronto apartment, setting an early tone with the opening verse: “Remember when I took off down the drive / It was a cold and wet December night / You threw your glass at the floor / I flew out the front door / It was a hella, hellava fight.” “We originally conceived of the video with an actor playing my love interest,” Melanie shares. “We wanted to flashback to moments of romantic tenderness and also moments of fighting … but by the time we got around to shooting the boyfriend’s part, it was lock-down city, so we had to adjust the vision.”
We follow Melanie on her emotional journey as she wanders the streets of eastern Toronto and heads to the comfort of the lakeshore, her recollections of this apparent turbulent partnership captured perfectly by Mihaly. Time spent enjoying the outdoors is interspersed with old photographs to reflect her happier moments, the yin to the yang that lies in the images of loneliness, isolation, and seeing nothing but her own reflection in the mirror. “I’m damaged goods / You’re damaged too / So I do me / And you do you / We got the kind of love / That doesn’t give up / I’m damaged goods / But that don’t mean / I don’t need love.”
“When Mihaly sent me the first version, we both felt something was missing. The video needed more, and since we couldn’t use an actor, we had to come up with something else,” she adds. “I headed to his place and we shot the guitar-playing footage in his gazebo. He cut [this] into the video, and though my hair was longer, I thought it worked to show a passage of time. [We] cut in photos of Peter and I, early pics of the two of us, and we called it a day.” The end result here is this fabulous music video that perfectly captures the essence of this particular song. And with the rustling of the door handle as the video draws to a close, it is left to the imagination of the viewer to determine if this relationship is being saved.
If you are craving more music from Melanie Peterson, be sure to check out a live stream that she has planned for this evening at 8pm on her Facebook page. Go ahead, click the link below, and like her page to receive notification of when the broadcast starts. https://www.facebook.com/misswatermeloni/
Photo Credit: James Dean
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
