All images by Savannah van der Niet //

Take a look at how San Mei’s ‘Heaven’ was put together.

Garnering attention from triple j and MTV, as well as landing a national tour support with Holy Holy, it seems 2018 has been a massively successful year for psych-pop act San Mei. The tracks from the Gold Coast local’s debut EP Heaven have collectively amassed over half a million streams, which is testament to her ability to deliver a uniquely styled version of outsider pop that clearly is resonating with people around the country.

Her latest video for EP title track ‘Heaven’ sees her take on the role of seductress in a Chinese restaurant as she lures in a strapping male counterpart. It’s a nice alternative look at the classic band/pop artist video, and fits nicely with the dreamy and surreal nature of the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtRQFTyhZZg

We got San Mei share some behind the scenes shots from the video (below), check it out, along with her descriptions below and get yourself along to catch her playing with Holy Holy over November and December (info here).

This is is our director Jen – she’s always so kind and patient directing me how to perform in these videos, especially when I’m freaking out or feeling self-conscious. She’s also a total boss and knows how to get things done so that we can all execute her vision.

This is Jen talking me through that coy scene when I’m giving our love interest Oliver the eyes from afar for the first time. I’m pretty sure I was looking across at an empty table for this scene so Jen had the hard task of directing me to flirt with a chair.

We were so lucky to have Oliver on board for this video. He nailed the dreamy, ‘Romeo + Juliet’ Leo vibe we wanted and did such a wonderful job (he’d never been on camera before!) –  I did threaten him with cutting his scenes if he ended up outshining me, and obviously he did not listen because he went and did it anyway!

This is Savannah (our photographer) allowing me my diva moment but also how amazing is this pavilion! The restaurant we shot in had so many cool features like this, it was a shame we didn’t get to show them all in the video.

The mural behind me here was possibly my favourite thing about filming at this restaurant. It’s so beautiful and was the perfect backdrop for the dreamy moment in the video.

Everyone’s loving themselves sick on camera in this shot, obviously. And they should because they all did an awesome job of eating delicious Chinese food and waving tablecloths around for hours.

This automatic circular door was so freaking cool, especially when we lit it up with those pink lights  – it was awesome to have this interesting, sort of dramatic backdrop when Oliver and I encounter each other in the same shot for the first time.

A family portrait. Well done to us.