Indie‑pop artist Greta van den Brink has today released her latest single Bodies, the fifth preview from her forthcoming nine‑track album This Wasn’t Planned, due May 2026. Bodies is a darkly cinematic exploration of identity, anxiety, and the unsettling glamour of the entertainment world, pairing Greta’s confessional storytelling with a glossy, haunting sonic palette.
A genre-blurring creator whose artistry spans screen and stage, Greta first made waves in film and stunt work, training at Sam Neill’s The Actor’s Program and contributing stunt performances to major productions like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Apple TV’s Time Bandits. Her move into music has been equally compelling, with her debut single Road to Hell unexpectedly landing on a Netflix soundtrack and paving the way for her distinct blend of vivid storytelling and emotional rawness.
From the dreamy lo‑fi of Chill Cool Girl to the self-aware bite of GIMBGTBLBM, the confessional sharpness of Mr Ego, and the reflective, cinematic sweep of Alpine State of Mind, Greta’s debut album continues to establish her as a bold, emotionally resonant voice in Aotearoa’s indie-pop landscape, culminating in the darkly cinematic intensity of Bodies.
Bodies originated in a caffeine-spiked afternoon that peaked Greta’s mind in the most specific way. Originally about anxiety, the song evolved into something darker and shinier: the glossy chaos of LA and Hollywood, where people are impossibly beautiful, eerily emotionless, and endlessly interchangeable. The track explores the fear of slowly metamorphosing into someone you don’t recognize, inspired by a world of shifting appearances, drug‑fuelled nights, conspiracy theories, and body‑horror entertainment like Ryan Murphy’s The Beauty and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance.
Greta says, “Part of my perspective comes from working as a stunt performer, where you exist as a replaceable body for a production. Bodies sits right in that tension - glamour and decay, performance and identity - asking: in a world obsessed with appearances, how long before we all become just bodies?”
Sonically, Bodies blends Greta’s indie‑pop roots with darker, cinematic textures, reflecting the tension between performance and identity. The track cements her reputation as an artist unafraid to confront both personal and societal unease while keeping her signature emotional honesty at the forefront.
Bodies by Greta van den Brink is out now, stream it here.
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