The new music video for Lea Marra & the Dream Catchers’ song “Tight Rope” follows just a few months behind their latest seven-song album, Healing, released in August, yet it is a track off their 2019 release, Bleeding Heart. The video is a spooky, mysterious and somewhat swashbuckling effort depicting a woman running away from something in the forest and ending up at an abandoned circus where she comes upon a fortune teller who reads her fortune charming her into her crystal ball in which the circus thrives with clowns, fire-breathers and freaks along with the band as they are sucked into this dream world Alice in Wonderland-style.
“The idea came about a few years ago to me after I recorded it with the band. I wrote this song in 2014, and I always thought this song would be perfect for a Circus themed music video, explains Marra. “Part of it was because of its title, ‘Tight Rope’ and the lyrics in the song is using a circus as a metaphor for what was going on in my head at the time. I would overthink a lot about situations and would have mad anxiety about things so this song described just that. ‘Shew fly don’t bother me, you are a waste of my time but you’re on my mind’ is talking about me overthinking situations and to try to let them be.”
The video was a DIY project with many friends and family pitching in to keep the budget low including her father who plays a sinister cotton candy peddler in a red and white striped jacket and a paper hat. Marra borrowed all the decorations tracked down all of the costumes and some makeup. The video was filmed at Old Fire House Winery at Geneva on the Lake for no fee here they even ran their vintage Ferris wheel for the video free of charge.
The crew consisted of many locals, friends and family: Keith Kornell, Josh Bailey (Grav Cle Band), Mer C. Hall (door gal at CODA), Anthony Hitch od local act, Saint Ash, Luke Bertone of the group, Erie Waters, Maryann Marra, Fiore Marra, Cleveland artist Tessa LeBaron and many more. The group includes Missy Long, Avery Hargrave, Minh V., Tyler Petko, Max Hyde-Perry and Dave Deitke, the front man of local band, C-Level.
“I am sooooooo happy with the way this music video turned out!” exclaims Marra. “I think we did an awesome job with the low budget we had and the lack of crew members…I just want people to interpret the song and the video how they want. If they feel a certain way that’s cool but if they just enjoy it how it is that’s cool too! I thought it would be a perfect time to release it in October in the spirit of Halloween being around the corner."
The song “Tight Rope” opens with a fitting carnival-esque accordion. The bass is driving, the drumbeat is appropriately basic and Marra’s vocals and catchy verse are typical of her '90s-ish tone reminiscent of Alanis Morissette with a fun 4 Non-Blondes-like appeal. Marra seems hard at work towards carving out a groove both musically and with regard to her career.
“The tight rope symbolizes, either you will fall or stay steady in your situations if you keep your focus and “balance,” explains Marra. “The musicality to the song l really brought to life and has that circus theme feel. I brought this idea to Cole during the pandemic even though I had it in my mind for a year prior to that. We started to talk about it and how to make it really come to life in the right way with a very very low budget. We planned out the whole story of the music video in seven months, and we also began to scout out places that had Ferris wheels for our set during that time. We finally started filming, which took a few days, in May of 2021.”
