“Here With Me” by Marshmello

Marshmello is an American electronic music producer and DJ, who has taken the dance genre by storm in the past few years.. His stage name is a playful misspelling of marshmallow, and he’s become most recognizable for wearing a custom marshmallow helmet that has a smiley face on it. This helps him conceal his identity like other electronic DJs such as Deadmau5 and Daft Punk, and really seals in that theme of fun. Known for his high profile collaborations with artists like Khalid, Selena Gomez, Shawn Mendes, and Bastille, Mello has become an instantly recognizable force in dance and pop music. The song “Here With Me” is another collaboration of his, this time with the synth-pop band CHVRCHES, and was released in March of 2019, with the music video being released April 10th 2019.

The song leans more on the pop side of the current pop/dance fusion scene that has taken over radio in the past couple of years. When compared to some of Marshmello’s other works, it seems to be a bit more simplistic and straight-forward pop. However, the song is bolstered by the vocals of Lauren Mayberry, as she adds a lot of feeling to the lyrics, and hammers home the theme of loss and longing.”

The music video begins with a young girl playing in a firefighter’s outfit. She’s got her eye on a red clock that matches her bright red chucks. She’s waiting for her firefighter dad to get home, which he does right on time. The video then fast forwards ten years, and the girl is now a teen but she’s still wearing red chucks. She goes to the door to greet her dad but he’s not there. Her mom calls her to the living room where her dad is on the TV fighting a massive house fire. The feed ends as the house collapses with the girl’s dad inside. The video then cuts to the mother and girl apparently attending the father’s funeral. However the camera turns and we see the dad receiving a medal from the woman he saved from the house fire. This video perfectly encapsulates the song’s theme of missing someone and not being the same without them around, and shows the toll that longing feeling can have on someone.