The Drop: Bella Thorne Shows "Another Side" Of Herself In Exclusive "Just Call" Music Video With Prince Fox
Welcome to The Drop, Refinery29's new home for exclusive music video premieres. We want to shine the spotlight on female artists whose music inspires, excites, and (literally) moves us. This is where we'll champion their voices.
Welcome to the new era of Bella Thorne. The 19-year-old has been showing up in your favorite TV shows since 2006, and was a Disney sweetheart by 2010. Seven years later, she's shedding her good-girl persona for something a little more authentic, as evidenced by her role in Famous In Love (which is officially coming back for season 2), and her musical pivot to darker, less bubblegum pop that her fans can find relatable in whole new ways.
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Most recently, she teamed up with Los Angeles based producer and singer Prince Fox for "Just Call," and the music video is premiering right here on Refinery29. The two met around town at parties, and both connected with this song after realizing they both were in similar situations in their relationships: feeling stuck and not sure how to move forward.
Prince Fox, whose real name is Sam Lassner, explained that the video was designed to tell two different stories, accurately portraying the complicated nature of the point in a relationship when people are standing on two completely opposite sides.
"It’s a totally different story, who’s upsetting who," Lassner said of the side-by-side nature of the video. "If you play it backwards the narrative completely changes."
"We kind of wanted to trick the audience so you never really know..." Thorne added. "In my personal opinion, when it gets to this part of a relationship where the song is talking about, you kind of don’t know where you are with that person. You don’t really know where you stand."
If you go back and listen to Thorne's older music, which was last released in 2014, there's a marked difference between the vibes. New Bella is older, darker, more mature — but she's still the same girl.
"It’s definitely a new era for me," she told us. "A lot of people think it’s a new me but it’s not a new me, it’s just another side of me. I’m happy to be releasing new music in this era, and for me it’s just about saying what I’ve been trying to say and getting it through your head in a song. All the songs that I’ve been singing really say something."
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As for what's next, Lassner just released "Space" with Quinn XCII, and is hoping to keep releasing singles every month or so for the rest of the year. That, and also videos, whether that's music videos, vlogs, or other types of content.
Thorne is similarly busy. She's making "hella music" of her own, and has several upcoming films, including a short film that she's working on as a director, writer, and actress. Then, of course, there's Famous In Love, which will start filming its second season later this year.
But this also isn't the last we've heard from the duo. The two were very enthusiastic about the prospect of working together again, and we wouldn't be surprised if they already had some plans up their sleeves. Stay tuned.
"Just Call" is out now on Steve Aoki's Dim Mak.