Premiere: “Stranger” by VOWWS
The music video for the darkly sweet, industrial song strings together ghosts of memories
With their journey beginning in Sydney, Matt and Rizz of the Australian/Iranian duo VOWWS are now settled in LA and casting sublime, carefree West Coast temperaments into their shadowy, distortion-filled pop songs. Through bold spunk, they wrote a song specifically for Gary Numan, “Losing Myself In You,” and got the pioneering “industrial” artist to sing on it—simply by asking someone who knew someone who knew his manager. “His people got back about three months later and said he really liked it, and would like to do it. We were completely floored—it’s an honor to work with him,” Matt tells CH.
The music video for their song “Stranger,” which premieres on CH today, is a collage of fleeting flashbacks—repeating and in slow motion. It was shot by the duo over the course of a year, documenting their travels from NYC’s The Waldorf-Astoria to DTLA and a Motel 6 in Lordsburg, New Mexico. “When we first thought about this video, we were in the U-Haul relocating yet again, in 2014—this time from New York to LA,” Matt tells CH. “Obviously we spent a lot of time talking. We talked about everything, but one thing kept coming back: how, when you look back in time, some things are burned into your memory forever. But as more time goes by, the more details drop away. Eventually you’re just left with this big feeling, and it can be really strong, and the events themselves don’t matter as much anymore. For ‘Stranger,’ we wanted to re-create some of the shadows of moments like that, and put them together in the same patchwork style as the song. Sort of like little ghosts of memories all strung together.” The way Rizz’s low-pitched vocals blend with Matt’s recalls ’80s new wave bands blended with Moby’s “South Side,” along with VOWWS’ own kick of aggressive release.
VOWWS’ debut album The Great Sun is out now from Cleopatra Records in CD and vinyl, as well as on iTunes. Catch them on tour through mid-December up and down the West Coast.
Images courtesy of VOWWS
