Ariana Grande explains how making music is both 'healing' and 'complicated'

Ariana Grande is letting fans in on the creative process behind her most personal visual project yet.

On April 17, the pop star shared behind-the-scenes footage from her Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead short film on YouTube, giving a closer look at the emotional, sci-fi-tinged concept that dropped alongside her chart-topping deluxe album.

“This whole short film concept is basically about how when we’re young, sometimes we want to erase certain things… but when we grow older, we would do anything to relive those moments,” she explains in the video.

In the surreal short, the Grammy-winner reprises her role as Peaches, now decades older, visiting a futuristic clinic to relive bittersweet memories.

Her father, Ed Butera, makes a cameo as a mad scientist who revives her using soundwaves. “My dad played the part of this mad doctor-scientist so beautifully,” Grande says about her father, with whom she was once estranged.

“The same thing that has made my life complicated… is also the same thing that heals me time and time again, and that is music.”

Grande also praised co-director Christian Breslauer during a sweet moment on set: “It’s my favorite album, and you’re my favorite director. These are my favorite videos, so yeah, we’re going to overdo it.”