The latest project from American Idol season 8 singer Megan Joy is a collaboration with her husband, ex-Used member, Quinn Allman.
There’s an interesting story behind the duo’s name. The married Utah couple always knew they’d have a child. “We always thought we’d have a girl, and we’d name her Vada,” Megan told the Salt Lake Tribune in a recent interview.
When the couple learned that their first child together would be a boy, the female moniker became part of the name of their new collaboration, VadaWave.
The duo’s first EP, Out of Body, will be released Dec. 9. Their baby boy is due a few days after.
VadaWave’s new music video for the song “Escape” was inspired by Megan’s fascination with Fundamentalist Mormonism–extremist sects that still practice polygamy. In the STL interview, Megan explains the video’s backstory:
The most hard-rock song on the EP is “Escape,” in which Joy sings in the persona of a young woman fleeing the grip of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, the polygamist sect led by the now-imprisoned Warren Jeffs.
Joy had become fascinated by the FLDS when she read Carolyn Jessop’s memoir, “Escape,” while competing on “American Idol.” “I just grew a little obsession with the culture and what was happening there,” she said.
The couple also learned that their home in Little Cottonwood Canyon was not too far from the Alta Academy, a school run by Jeffs (which was demolished in 2014). “Once we realized that was right by our house, it kind of reignited this flame we had to learn about it,” Joy said.
Allman said they tried to get past the stereotypes that have formed around the FLDS. “Of course there are cultlike characteristics, the oppression and the domination,” Allman said. “But when you actually look at the people, they’re very hard-working people. Their convictions are very strong. So [we were in] more of a place of empathy, not so much casting judgment.”
What’s especially chilling in “Escape” is the use of audio of Jeffs himself, preaching to the women in his control.
That the violence and abuse is only suggested in the video delivers several unsettling moments. The video ends with information on how to help FLDS members attempting to transition away from the authoritarian sect.
Watch Megan Joy and VadaWave’s new “Escape” music video here.
