Maryze and Morganne Put Their Chemistry on Display in Intimate New Music Video and Playful Bilingual Collab "Langue"

Maryze and Morganne just shared a brand-new music video for their unabashedly risqué and thoroughly irresistible French-English collaborative track, “Langue”. We’ve gotten to know Maryze over the course of the last year thanks to her participation as special guest artist in the remarkable (and now-concluded) Alex Cameron residency at the Cara Hotel in Los Angeles, and subsequent photo shoots and engaging music discussions here at WMF HQ. Morganne, meanwhile, is even newer to our world, thanks to an introduction via Maryze. And while we’ve enjoyed getting to know both artists and incorporate them into our playlists and ever-growing photo archive, we’re especially excited by their most recent joint endeavor—the “Langue” single and music video.

We were fortunate enough to get one of the earliest sneak peeks at their fabulously fun and unapologetically intimate music video, and immediately had all sorts of questions regarding its background. Morganne and Maryze graciously indulged our curiosity and shared insights into their beguiling bilingual gem, including some informal French lessons, spooky anecdotes, and confirmation that the on-screen chemistry is indeed the real thing. We’re delighted to share all the above with you here in the following conversation between Maryze, Morganne, and our own Bobby Weirdo.

Bobby Weirdo: So, I’ve seen the “Langue” video, and am one of the first-ever people to see it!

Maryze: It’s true!

BW: I really like it, and think it’s a video deserving of the track, because the track is super fun. The video’s vibe complements the track perfectly.

Morganne: A hundred percent!

Maryze: Thank you.

BW: Right off the bat, I’m curious: You both directed the video, correct?

Morganne: Yeah, and we tried really hard to do everything we needed to for it in the preceding few days and the eight hours that it took to get ready.

BW: So, when you’re in front of the camera –but also directing– how does that work?

Morganne: It’s hard.

Maryze: Priscilla helped a lot, though. Priscilla Mars –the cinematographer– shot and edited it. She was really good at keeping us on track.

Morganne: A hundred percent.

Maryze: We had a lot of really good discussions leading up to [the shoot] about what our vision was, and she helped us execute that well.

Morganne: And also, there were certain parts where you were on camera with the other girls, and I could be behind the camera, and parts where you could be behind the camera when I was on camera with the other girls. We got some shots together, but often there were times when one of us could be behind the camera to see what was going on.

Maryze: Yeah, we were always switching.

Morganne: Plus, as independent artists I think we’re very used to doing everything DIY. I’m used to playing both roles.

Maryze: Mm-hmm. Also, Morganne did my makeup for the shoot and I started having an intense allergic reaction. We did my whole face, and then my eyes would not stop watering, so all the skin was raw around my eyes. In the video, you can’t really tell, but my skin was in hives.

Morganne: We had to remove everything and redo [the makeup]. So, there were lots of delays, especially because we were doing everything ourselves like makeup, styling, and hair.

Maryze: We were supposed to shoot it at noon, and we ended up shooting at like…

Morganne: 8:00 p.m.!

BW: You mentioned other people in the video. Were those people you’ve already worked with, or were they people you met just for this video?

Morganne: Those are my friends. KiNG MALA –Areli– was my first internet friend, and since then we’ve become great friends in person. Another girl, Kenzie Love, is [someone] I met through a friend at college, and our other mutual friend Courtney was there.

We basically sent out a call – “do any of our friends want to be sexy on camera, please?” Those were the ones who answered, and they rose to the occasion.

Maryze: They really did. That’s when I met Courtney, and she’s become a friend.

Morganne: Now you’re staying at her place!

Maryze: I’m staying at her place for a few weeks because she’s on tour. But yeah – it’s [a group] of artists and musicians, and they’re each very talented.

*Morganne (left) and Maryze (right) at WMF HQ. Photo: WMF, November 2023*

BW: On the topic of reaching out to the artists for this video, it’s an intimate video. How did you and the other on-screen artists handle the planning and conversation around that?

Maryze: I always make sure everyone knows what [could] possibly happen, and [check] who is comfortable with what. Intimacy coordination is a really important thing. Everyone there was queer, and we discussed who would be comfortable kissing, who would be comfortable having their tongue on camera…so we definitely had a conversation about that and saw what everyone was comfortable with. But [after that], it was very much improvised.

Morganne: It was in the moment. We told them it would be sexy, and then once they got [to the shoot] we said, “OK, who is OK with which level of sexy?”, And then we went from there. But there was no choreography, no blocking, nothing. It’s just different groupings of people on camera, and letting the vibes take over. And they definitely did take over.

Maryze: Yeah – everything was in the moment and letting people vibe together the way they were vibing. And it turned out really well just because of how natural it was. It didn’t feel forced. There’s a moment where I get distracted by one of the girls and start giggling. That made it into the video, and it was just all very natural.

Morganne: Yeah. And also –I think especially with Areli and Courtney– we have a community of artists here in L.A., and we all are in each other’s music videos. Not every one [of our videos] is as sexy as this, but I think that a lot of my friends are used to [saying], “Oh, a friend needs another person in a music video? Let me go!” and just rolling with it.

BW: The video begins with you speaking on a public payphone, which is not the easiest thing to find these days. Where was that phone?

Morganne: Priscilla found it.

Maryze: Yeah, so Priscilla found a payphone that she absolutely wanted to use, and it was the end of the shoot at this point. It was almost midnight, and we wanted to wrap at midnight. It started raining, and it was really cold. We were only at the payphone for ten to fifteen minutes shooting, but a very interesting thing happened: Right when we finished shooting at the phone, it started raining and the phone started ringing.

Morganne: At this dead end on a hill in Pasadena!

Maryze: It was so eerie, and it already felt like a haunted location on the edge of a ditch.

Morganne: There was literally a Dead End sign.

Maryze: And then the phone started ringing. I picked it up, and it was just weird creepy static.

Morganne: We were very scared, and then I was on the hill in the rain trying to wear 8-inch Pleasers –like stripper heels– and a lot of that footage just got cut. I forgot that you kind of need flat ground for that sort of thing, and it just wasn’t working!

*Morganne (left) and Maryze (right), pre-interview at WMF HQ. Photo: WMF, November 2023*

BW: Two visual things that I think are striking in the video are the red tones, and how tightly-framed the video is. Are those elements that you planned ahead of time? What was the concept for the video as far as how it would look?

Maryze: We were working with a tiny budget and limited resources. The indoor shots were in Priscilla’s garage, so part of the tightness was that we only had so much space that was covered by a drape or whatever. And there are some other shots, but I feel like the super tightness adds to the intimacy.

Morganne: Yeah. We wanted close-ups of hands…tongues…tongues!

Maryze: Yeah, not necessarily seeing a person as a whole –-just a little snapshot.

Morganne: Like an amalgamation of parts.

Maryze: Mm-hmm.

Morganne: And then the red…I think we decided that we just wanted it to be that.

Maryze: Yes, we did say that. We wanted the cover [art] to be red and thought it just suited the energy of the song.

Morganne: And Priscilla really worked [well] within the constraints.

Maryze: She’s an incredible vintage film-noir cinematographer, and she really brought the vision to the next level.

Morganne: Yeah, and besides the payphone, it was basically just a camera on a tripod in one room…

Maryze: The red light…

Morganne: And just amazing intimate vibes.

BW: The subtitles were a no-brainer: We need them because the song is in French and English. Even though I see the translation as I watch the video, I still suspect there’s some double-entendre and wordplay that someone like me –who speaks English but not French—may be missing. What am I missing?

Morganne: [Maryze] can go into that.

Maryze: The biggest one –and the concept of the song– is “enseigne-moi ta langue,” which is “teach me your tongue”. “Langue” is “tongue” and “language” in English.

Morganne: It’s like “mother tongue” in English. We have two words for it in English, but they have one in French.

Maryze: Exactly. So, it’s “we don’t speak the same language –teach me your language,” but it’s also “teach me your language through your tongue and through kissing.”

Morganne: Like there’s a physical language we can speak even though we don’t speak the same language.

Maryze: Exactly. I’m trying to think of more…

Morganne: …Double-entendres, which is also a French word. Well, there are some in English, like “You can taste where I’m from.”

Maryze: Yeah, and “spell my name with your tongue.”

Morganne: And then “Je veux goûter”… “goûter” is “taste”.

Maryze: Uh-huh. “Je veux goûter t’es si bonne” is “I want to taste; you’re so delicious.” I like “Tu n'es pas ma mère”, [which is] “You’re not my mom,” and “Mais je sais t'ecouter,” [which is] “But I know to obey you.” So, it’s kind of getting into dommy-mommy fantasies.

Morganne: A hundred percent. And “punis-moi” – “punish me!”

Maryze: Yeah, it’s very teacher-kink – like a little reprimand.

Morganne: And then with the subtitles, we also wanted [the video] to look like a foreign film.

Maryze: Which is very much Priscilla’s visual style.

Morganne: And it’s just a lot of stuff with the media that both of us consume as well. We wanted that film-noir, old sexy French film vibe.

*Maryze and Morganna at WMF HQ. November, 2023. Photo: WMF*

BW: Finally, is this the only time we’ll be seeing you perform this song together?

Morganne: I hope not!

Maryze: I invited [Morganne] to Pride Montreal because I was performing there and was going to debut the song there this summer. Unfortunately, Pride Montreal got rained on and had to shut down. So, it was good that she couldn’t make it. But I would love to perform it with [her].

Morganne: We’ll keep trying.

Maryze: I’m going to be back here [in L.A.]…

Morganne: And I really want to go to Montreal, and I think the song really has lasting power, so there’s no way we’re going to forget about it any time soon.

Maryze: The first several days has been really encouraging with the organic reach.

Morganne: The song means so much to us both because we share so many inspirations, which is what we talked about the first time we met, the day before we wrote the song. It’s really special to us both, and there’s no way we’re going to set it and forget it. We’ll give the people what they want!

Maryze: People like when we interact—every post that is the two of us does really well on TikTok.

Morganne: And we have chemistry.

Maryze: We have chemistry.