Get a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Dasha’s ‘Austin’ Music Video

Dasha‘s single “Austin” has taken country music — and the line dancing community — by storm. Now, she’s giving fans something more.

On Wednesday, April 24, Dasha brought “Austin” to life with a music video. Speaking to PEOPLE about the video, Dasha, 24, spilled the details on how the idea came together, tapping Jxdn as her love interest and filming the “electric” dance scenes.

The video, directed by Hunter Moreno, was shot at Rebel Ranch in Ashland City, Tenn. and the singer-songwriter says she wanted it to depict the “anger” and “darkness” in the song with intensive acting scenes.

“We needed someone that could play just that douchebag, washed-up cowboy. And when Jxdn showed interest, I was like, oh my God, that’d be so amazing,” Dasha tells PEOPLE exclusively of the musician and content creator who’s from Chattanooga, Tenn.. “He’s such an incredible actor as it was. He hasn’t really gotten to showcase that side of him, but he and I have both been friends for a while.”

Throughout the music video, there’s a juxtaposition of the good and the bad times in a relationship. During one of their bad moments, Dasha and Jxdn leaned in to their acting skills and she raves about the energy in that room.

“We were shooting one of the bad times scenes in the video, and we’re in his bathroom, and it’s him drinking in the bathroom, and I’m begging him to stop drinking. He just gets mad at me and starts yelling, and I’m screaming back at him too,” she says.

“We really stepped into character. Jxdn and I both did, and the BTS for that scene is crazy because we’re literally audibly screaming at each other and throwing this towel and it’s so real,” she continues. “I remember filming it, and my heart was beating so fast, and it just felt like that moment that I wrote the song about.”

In addition to the dramatic fight scenes, Dasha also loved that they gave it a “honky-tonk” and Footloose feel with the line dancing scenes.

“It was electric in the air, everyone was so excited, including me, and it really just felt like a backwood, honky tonk,” she says, adding that her outfit was inspired by Ariel Moore in Footloose.

“I kind of modeled my outfit off of her, and I have those red cowboy boots on,” she says. “I wanted to feel like a dive bar smoke show. I wanted it to feel like that girl, that It Girl in that small town, I wanted to feel very effortless and grungy and raw. And so there’s a lot of black leather going on. There’s a lot of low-rise denim and a lot of dirt.”

Dasha released “Austin” as a single in November of last year and it was later featured in her February album What Happens Now?. Since then, she’s garnered over 100 million streams globally and her line dance garnered nearly 9 billion views on TikTok.

Dasha was working on another track in the studio when she got the idea to write her “scorned woman song.”

“I was just so upset in this whole situation and I had so much anger to get out. I really wanted to write a song just that channeled that because I needed some help in that area,” she recalls. “Adam Windler played guitar on it, playing the guitar chords, and the rest of the song just flew out so easily. It was crazy.”

The music video for “Austin” is out now.