Crowd-surf through space via the NYC post-punk trio’s new song and neon-soaked video
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Over the past year, perhaps more than ever, we’ve been forced to confront and reckon with the concept of space—simultaneously not having enough, and often having way too much.
There are the confined spaces of our apartments, where it sometimes feels like the claustrophobia might kill us, and the endless stretches of land and sea existing between sisters in different states and friends and brothers abroad. There’s personal space (six feet!!!), which doesn’t feel like nearly enough on the subway or at the store, but might as well be miles when we really want to hug our moms. Then there’s the idea of empty spaces—some signifying departure, some offering room for opportunity—which somehow feel more representative of this past year than anything they could ever be filled with.
And, of course, there’s outer space, which in its utter mystery and trippy-ass expansiveness offers us a vehicle with which to reimagine reality, symbolizing escape and, most importantly, serving as the perfect (very rad) video setting for “Introspectre”—the killer new song from A Very Special Episode, which tackles the difficulties and anxieties of transitioning from private to public life, leaving the safety and certainty of our homes for the unknown and uncontrollable elements of what’s beyond our walls…
A video that, as we all prepare to fully re-enter the world and the beautiful, magical mix/mess of shine, strangeness and shit that define it, I’m absolutely thrilled to premiere right here!
Ahead of the video’s release, the post-punk pals of A Very Special Episode sent over some info on the background of the song, which—despite its pandemic-perfect themes—was actually in the works before we entered our new weird reality:
“It’s wild to think that ‘Introspectre’ was written and recorded before a year of semi-lockdown. The lyrics are all about the anxieties and obsessive, haunting thoughts that sometimes make it difficult to live out in the world, or even leave the house. And then when, of course, we couldn’t leave for a really long time they felt relevant in a whole new way. So now as we start to ease back into the world and navigate what that means, we’re happy to be doing so alongside our new tune.”
While I haven’t seen AVSE IRL (yet!), this video accomplishes the extremely difficult task of capturing the spirit of a live show—an energy enhanced by sweet visual effects that have me scouring Facebook Marketplace for projectors so that I can beam the vid onto every wall of my apartment, fill it to 50% capacity with masked-n-vaxed strangers and mix gin and sodas (while lighting $50 on fire) to simulate the real concert experience…
And, based on what the band told me, that’s pretty much the exact feeling they want to inspire.
“The song’s working title was ‘The Banger’ based on the pure energy of it, which is why like so many of our songs we rushed it out to play it live before the lyrics were fully written. When we couldn’t play it live anymore, we tried to find a way to channel the energy of the song into a video without leaving our respective living rooms, which was a fun challenge. We’re pumped to be able to perform it again at our livestream Saturday on bandNada and we’re glad to finally have it out into the world!”
The livestream! Along with getting your AVSE fix via “Introspectre,” be sure to tune into to bandNada (handy how-to here) for A Very Special Livestream THIS SATURDAY at 9 p.m.—
And get ready to rock out and ~space out~.
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Follow the band at @avsepisode, add their music to your Spotify playlists, buy their music on Bandcamp and find everything AVSE at averyspecialepiso.de!
Stay tuned for AVSE’s ful- length record, Fix Your Hearts or Die, coming Fall 2021!
Feature image provided by the band.