After teasing new material from their forthcoming record Pray for It earlier this month, July Talk have now shared the album's second single, "Governess Shadow," alongside a new animated music video.
Video director Cosette Schulz collaborated with animation and VFX crew Shy Kids for the visual effort, which Schulz explains is meant to tackle misogyny and body issues.
Read her statement below:
All of the images seen in this video are sourced from magazines published during the '50s, '60s and '70s. I started with a big ol' stack of fashion magazines that belonged to Leah's (co-lead vocalist) grandmother, some worn around the edges, some yellowed with age. There's an innocence to the design of that time, but underneath that innocence is a whole lot of blatant misogyny. I would like to think that things have changed; we're starting to see different bodies, ethnicities, and sexual orientations represented, and more varied messaging in general. Things are improving, but we continue to be a bit in the shadow of those earlier decades. The song came with many of these ideas baked in, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to help bring those themes to life.
July Talk frontman Peter Dreimanis explained of the track:
This song is about my great-grandmother Alice and her two sisters Marie and Anna, who were sent to finishing school in Moscow as teenagers to learn how to serve the wealthy families of the day. It's also about the deep imbalances of power in our world, and specifically how people are separated by wealth and gender. I started thinking about this giant shadow that white men can step in and out of whenever it suits us. How we can simply decide when to break the rules and when to recite them. I wanted "Governess Shadow" to raise a flag and a dagger and call out that comfortable complacency.
"Governess Shadow" is the second single released from the band's forthcoming album, following "Pay for It," which arrived earlier this month.
Pray for It arrives July 10 via Sleepless Records/BMG. The band's new record was produced by Graham Walsh, David Plowman, Burke Reid, Milan Sarkadi and Ben Fox. It marks July Talk's third studio album and follows the release of 2016's Touch.
Watch the new video for "Governess Shadow" below.
Video director Cosette Schulz collaborated with animation and VFX crew Shy Kids for the visual effort, which Schulz explains is meant to tackle misogyny and body issues.
Read her statement below:
All of the images seen in this video are sourced from magazines published during the '50s, '60s and '70s. I started with a big ol' stack of fashion magazines that belonged to Leah's (co-lead vocalist) grandmother, some worn around the edges, some yellowed with age. There's an innocence to the design of that time, but underneath that innocence is a whole lot of blatant misogyny. I would like to think that things have changed; we're starting to see different bodies, ethnicities, and sexual orientations represented, and more varied messaging in general. Things are improving, but we continue to be a bit in the shadow of those earlier decades. The song came with many of these ideas baked in, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to help bring those themes to life.
July Talk frontman Peter Dreimanis explained of the track:
This song is about my great-grandmother Alice and her two sisters Marie and Anna, who were sent to finishing school in Moscow as teenagers to learn how to serve the wealthy families of the day. It's also about the deep imbalances of power in our world, and specifically how people are separated by wealth and gender. I started thinking about this giant shadow that white men can step in and out of whenever it suits us. How we can simply decide when to break the rules and when to recite them. I wanted "Governess Shadow" to raise a flag and a dagger and call out that comfortable complacency.
"Governess Shadow" is the second single released from the band's forthcoming album, following "Pay for It," which arrived earlier this month.
Pray for It arrives July 10 via Sleepless Records/BMG. The band's new record was produced by Graham Walsh, David Plowman, Burke Reid, Milan Sarkadi and Ben Fox. It marks July Talk's third studio album and follows the release of 2016's Touch.
Watch the new video for "Governess Shadow" below.