WATCH Lesbian Musician Maia Sharp Tackles Silent Theater

We catch up with Maia Sharp on the set of her new music video, “Me After You”

BY Daniel Reynolds

August 28 2012 4:00 AM ET

In her latest music video, Maia Sharp finds a muse in silent film.

Maia Sharp leans over a piano at Los Angeles's Silent Movie Theatre, crooning into a vintage microphone, while the stars of the silver screen flicker overhead. “I know I hold the smoking gun,” she sings, as a woman onscreen stares forlornly into the distance. “But clearly, anyone would rather be you after me…”

The music video’s director calls for a break. The song, “Me After You,” is cut off, and the woman’s misty-eyed countenance freezes. Moments later, Sharp is leaning against the counter of the lobby’s concession stand, surrounded by old movie posters. Dark hair tumbles to her tuxedo shirt, her bowtie coquettishly undone.

“We put together scenes from silent films that reflect the emotion in the song,” explains the singer, whose album, Change the Ending, will be released August 28. “And just like in the old-time movies, where they’d have somebody playing live, I am the orchestra. I give the silent movie its sound.”

Sharp has been providing sound for a lot of artists over the years. A prolific songwriter, she’s written music for some of the industry’s best, including Cher, Bonnie Raitt, The Dixie Chicks, and Art Garfunkel. But she’s a star in her own right, too. Change the Ending is Sharp’s fifth solo album, and also the first that she’s independently produced.

Sharp devoted six months to produce songs that she's written over the past decade for the album. “I took some long walks,” Sharp says. “It takes a little longer when there’s no one else to bounce things off of.”