Mikayla Pasterfield – Heritage Listed
Today, rising queer singer-songwriter Mikayla Pasterfield releases her debut EP Heritage Listed.
Throughout the EP, childhood nostalgia meets boundless ambition as Mikayla navigates the all-too-familiar sentimentality towards a hometown that she’s outgrown. Painting vignettes of first relationships to first heartbreaks, the categorical throughline is Mikayla’s astute perception of the world around her, along with her unique ability to distill these experiences through her songwriting.
Along with the EP release, Mikayla shares the official music video for “End of the World.”
The song is an allegorical counter to the devastation of feeling hidden by someone who is unable to express their love in the way you need. It follows early singles “Voodoo” – a track about the longing for a sense of closure to a complicated situation through a reflection of intimate moments, and the title track “Heritage Listed.”
“End of the World was written as a hypothetical question posed to a lover (specifically LGBT) that asks ‘how high do the stakes have to be for you to show me you love me?’,” Mikayla shares. “It’s heavily inspired by the casts found in Pompeii and Herculaneum and the stories they told, specifically ‘The Two Maidens’ that were found under the ash embracing one another in a society that would not have allowed that kind of intimacy between women. (I’m unfortunately an ancient history nerd, sue me).”
Working with director Nick Sullivan, Mikayla expands upon the overarching narrative of Heritage Listed with a cohesive series of music videos for the project, culminating in ‘End of the World’ out today. Speaking on the process, Nick Sullivan shares, “After diving into the themes of each track, I was struck by the idea of exploring a relationship that was all take, no give, but setting it against the backdrop of a world in crisis. We start with the innocence of youth, explore suburban life and end with the liberation of escape and togetherness. Each video builds on the last. The juxtaposition of light and dark, joy and despair, offers a powerful exploration of life’s fragility and the pursuit of something greater — even when the world seems to be falling apart.”
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