BARA HARI, Tempest and the Cost of a Handmade Storm
A Los Angeles Dark-Pop Artist Wrote, Produced and Hand-Built the World of Her 2022 Single
BARA HARI made every costume and every storm set piece for the Tempest video by hand. Behind the name is Los Angeles artist Samantha Franco, who also wrote and produced the track. Released on 18 November 2022 through Re:Mission Entertainment, the single shows how far one artist’s labour can stretch.
BARA HARI’s single Tempest sits in the playlist below, and her coverage is collected on her artist profile. The track came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play, then read on for how she built it.
How BARA HARI Made Tempest a Self-Produced Dark-Pop Single and the First Step Toward Lesser Gods
The constraint is the story. Franco writes, records and produces out of her own studio in Los Angeles, as Post-Punk.com noted when the video premiered. ReGen Magazine filled in the credits: Franco wrote and produced Tempest, Ian Flux mixed it, and Flux’s Fact Pattern bandmate Corey Hirsch played drums. That is a small team by any measure, with the artist doing most of the work.
That arrangement shapes the sound. Iggy Magazine described bouncing rhythms, nostalgic keyboard figures and insistent bass lines under layered female vocals. Those vocals run from high cries to calm, windswept breathing. Meanwhile, Clout heard the result as cinematic and intense, with a distinctly dark-pop feel over alternative rock weight.
Tempest was the first new material after the 2021 Dark New Day EP. It was also announced as the first single from a full-length album, Lesser Gods. That album arrived on 26 May 2023 with Tempest as its second track, so the single did its job as an opening move.
The comparisons writers reached for are telling. Post-Punk.com described tight, driving productions in a style akin to Florence + the Machine and Garbage. The home-studio method has its own precedent in Billie Eilish. Her 2019 debut album was recorded with her brother Finneas in his bedroom studio, also in Los Angeles.
The Lyric of Tempest Turns Lost Friends Into Adversaries and Answers Patriarchal Expectations
The song has two readings, and they fit together. Post-Punk.com described a confrontation with people once considered friends, and Clout heard friends turning into adversaries. ReGen Magazine and Iggy Magazine both picked out the defiance: the opening lines insist she is not quite like the other girls, and the song pushes back against patriarchal attitudes.
Put side by side, those readings describe one arc. A falling-out becomes a storm, and the storm becomes a stance. The title carries both meanings at once, the weather and the temper.
The name works the same way. As Post-Punk.com explained, BARA HARI fuses two 1910s vamps, the silent-film star Theda Bara and the dancer and spy Mata Hari. Both women lived inside public images of their own making. That is fitting for a song that blurs myth and reality.
Handmade Costumes, Storm Set Pieces and a Fragmented Timeline Give Tempest by BARA HARI Its Shape
The video carries as much of the craft as the audio. According to Clout, every costume and storm set piece in it was handmade by the artist. ReGen Magazine credited her direction, editing and costume design, and Post-Punk.com called it a visual collaboration with Ian Flux.
On screen, Franco moves through a series of warrior-queen guises. She wields swords, draws symbols in the sand and carries a sacred heart and halo. Iggy Magazine described the result as a fragmented timeline. Because the scenes arrive out of order, the viewer assembles the story from pieces, the way the lyric does.
The release also has a second structural test built in. BARA HARI later issued an acoustic version of Tempest, which strips the production away and leaves melody and lyric to carry the song. For a self-produced track, that is a useful check on the writing.
For listeners who like alt rock pop with a darker edge, the single is a sensible starting point. After that, Lesser Gods runs to ten tracks, from Siren Song to Immortal.
The BestRock.News curator team put it this way:
“Tempest makes a quiet case for doing the whole job yourself. The production, the theme and the handmade video all point the same way, and that kind of follow-through is what most self-released singles never manage.”
Where to Watch Tempest by BARA HARI and Follow the Project From Los Angeles
Watch the Tempest video in the player above, then stream the single on Apple Music or buy it on Bandcamp. Follow BARA HARI across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Substack.
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