British singer FKA Twigs' new music video was inspired by her struggle to escape an emotionally abusive past relationship.
The promo for the 28-year-old musician's new song Papi Pacify features a troubling scene where a man covers her mouth with his fingers, and Twigs, who is now engaged to Twilight star Robert Pattinson, 30, admits the dark imagery is a reference to an abusive former partner.
"In the relationship I couldn't communicate," she tells London's ES magazine. "The person I was with was stopping me from explaining how I felt. So the physical manifestation is someone putting their hand in your mouth."
The singer, real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett, admits she is still conflicted over the doomed romance.
"There's an element, too, of liking that as well. It's messed up. It's addictive," she explains. "Violent, or beautiful? It's kind of sexy, like emotional abuse can be tender.
"That's why it's messed up. If you are in an emotionally abusive relationship, it can be tender, that's why you stay. And you stay because there's a poorly (sick) part of your mind that likes it."
Twigs had to endure abuse of a different kind when she and Pattinson went public with their relationship in 2014, when Internet trolls inundated her Twitter account with racist comments.
Speaking to The New York Times last year (15) about her online ordeal, she said, "I can't begin to explain how awful it is. I didn't see my life going this way at all. But it's worth it. I'm so happy.
"It makes you want to just stop everything sometimes. It makes you want to smash your face into the mirror... It's relentless."
