For those who’ve not heard of LA-via-Sydney duo VOWWS before, then, boy, is your day about to get better. The darkwave band recently released their sophomore LP, Under the World, which confronts themes of isolation. They wanted to do more than just sing about it, though, so they headed up to Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea, which has historical significance as a ghost town; says the band, “It was all pretty surreal.” While there, they recorded what eventually came to be the clip for “Structure of Love,” which you can watch exclusively below.
If you were already familiar with VOWWS, it should come as no surprise that this excursion was far more than a simple photoshoot. The pair filmed while on shrooms and stitched together the footage later into what they describe as “a psychedelic desert nightmare.” It opens with Rizz in a greyscale desert, with the images itself skipping along with the kick drum. The colors bleed at every chorus, subverting the idea that color would make the images more friendly; it’s more unsettling, especially when coupled with Matt’s eerie blank stare. It is an apt representation, as the song itself is centered on dark experiences. Read the full quote from the band below.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”#FF78FF” class=”fistclass” size=”15″]“This song is about paranoid love, obsession, idealization and the hopelessness it can bring. The theme of isolation is strong in a lot of the stuff surrounding this release. Parts of this video were shot on location in Bombay Beach and The Sultan sea. If you read up on what happened there it’s pretty nuts. For some reason we always seek out the places that time forgot, so we rented an old vintage RV, very basic with no toilet or water, just a shell we could drag around and sleep in. We didn’t think about anything besides what we were doing, so we took some shrooms and went for it. It was all pretty surreal, I couldn’t remember much of what happened until we got back home two days later and was able to look at the footage…I was like wtf…but we went with it and created this sort of psychedelic desert nightmare.” [/perfectpullquote]
You will have several opportunities to see VOWWS in the coming months. They are performing at The Lash on June 15 and at Resident on July 27th. Rizz will also be DJing at Lethal Amounts Gallery on May 31st. Follow the links for more info.
You can also buy Under the World on Bandcamp. Be sure to follow VOWWS on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
