Exclusive Premiere: L.A.’s Pop Artist Rosie Darling Paints a Picture of Hurt on ‘Witness’ with Rajiv Dhall

Continuing her resolute yet openhearted indie-pop style, Los Angeles’ Rosie Darling teams up with Indian-origin American singer-songwriter Rajiv Dhall for an intimate and powerful ballad “Witness.”

The song is taken from Darling’s latest EP Coping, which released earlier this year. She says the collaboration with Dhall – known for his millions-subscribed YouTube channel TwentyForSeven and sharing music via erstwhile short video platform Vine – came about through mutual friends. Darling adds, “A few people said our voices would work well together, so we set up a few sessions, and both ended up deciding that ‘Witness’ would be such a cool song to have another voice on.”

When Dhall heard “Witness,” he says he immediately fell in love with the song. He adds about the process, “Rosie and I went back and forth a few times on social media, and we started playing around with some vocal arrangement stuff. I was so inspired by how visual the song is and how it puts you right in the center of this moment.” In a note, “Witness” is described as being about “the hurt that comes after moving on from a breakup and still feeling the other person trying to get a reaction from you.”

The visual element of the song is transformed with a music video that uses interpretive dance by Pallavi Sharda. In the clip, directed by filmmaker and cinematographer Michael Elias Thomas, Darling is shown singing as Sharda dances emotively, while Dhall is seen through a television set.

Darling adds, “For the longest time, I had the vision to have a dancer in this song, and Pallavi was recommended to me by a friend. She captured all of the emotion that this song holds so well, and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to collaborate with her on something so special.”

While Darling is figuring out her timeline to put out more music before the year ends, Dhall says he’s been working more as a songwriter with other artists. He adds, “[I’ve been] digging as deep as possible, and making music that feels like me.”

Watch the video for “Witness” ft Rajiv Dhall below. Stream the song here.