San Francisco native Zelma Stone released a new music video for her song "Be Free" today. The song is from Stone's 2023 EP, A Dance, which Zelma discussed with MJ on an episode of West of Twin Peaks last year.

"This song is me talking with my deceased brother, Brett, as well as my dear, deceased friend, Jenny," Zelma says of the track. "Both [were] killed suddenly and were too young. Jenny (21) died in The Ghost Ship Oakland fire, and Brett (19) when I was 14 in a car accident. In this song, I tell them that they are missed, and I ask them if they are free and if they needed to be freed from their body. In the chorus, I talk to myself and make the decision that they are indeed free, and from believing that, I am then free myself from continued grief. In the music video, director Hayden J Frederick plays both Brett and Jenny. It was extremely therapeutic and healing to shoot this. The video starts in darkness and ends in daylight."

Watch the new music video below and enjoy some snippets from MJ's conversation with Zelma about dance, grief, and the new collection of songs:

MJ: It seems that you've started to embrace dance as a major creative part of your life as well.

I'm realizing that more and more too. I very much want to collaborate with dancers, and I think movement is a really important way to express yourself. For me, I'm realizing--I mean, I danced a lot in high school, and that was the peak grief time for me, when my brother passed away. That and songwriting really helped me through things. I'm not the best with my words; I can communicate, but I have some learning differences. For some reason, songwriting, movement, and dance, I'm able to express myself in a way that maybe I can't quite with my words.

MJ: Life is a dance. Grief is a dance. It's a fluid movement that you are moving through physically as well as spiritually and emotionally, and it ties kind of everything together.

I'm glad you said that 'cause that's exactly how I want to portray this EP. Specially with the song "A Dance," it's very much this ebb and flow of life. I imagined an actual dancer, like a performance where you're watching this dancer move between different feelings that come up for them. I relate it to my life, and I'm sure everyone else can relate to their life as well because it's not always even, there's a lot of ups and downs.

Zelma's dreams of working with dancers to bring A Dance to life is coming true! "The whole process of making this video was magical, to say the least," Zelma says. "In addition to this video, [Hayden J Frederick and I] also produced a vision of mine, making a 4 part visual EP also featuring live dancers. I will be releasing that this summer, and I can't wait to share it!" We can't wait either, Zelma! Keep an eye on Zelma Stone's insta for that visual EP and more.