Melbourne synthpop project Suburban Spell has unleashed a dark and danceable offering to the world with the haunting new single “We All Pray”.
This latest video is the second from the Suburban Spell, following December’s lead single “Control”. The wistful, atmospheric, and otherworldly song showcases Peter Endall’s knack for hook-driven synthpop. Despite its breezy, ethereal dance nature, the lyrics delve into the complex nature of human belief systems, religious or otherwise. Endall employs stark, dystopian minimalism to explore the frailty hidden behind the suburban ideal’s pristine veneer.
“We all Pray is a reflection on diversity of thought and powerful symbols, and the easy truth is that we all pray in our own way,” Endall explains. “Praying doesn’t have to be about lofty notions and worship of greatness: it’s about creating our own belief systems that we are individually okay with. The song was written about how people worship and devote themselves to power in the traditional sense; and how that path is often laid out for them, because they are born into the right social circles. For the most part, this pursuit is pretty vacuous, because it can be so easily stripped away; and the real strength is being totally okay with wherever you are in this world.”
The monochromatic video, conceived and storyboarded by Peter Endall, and filmed, directed, and edited by Adam Calaitzis (who also mixed the Split Levels album at Melbourne’s Toyland Recording Studio), depicts Endall in a dark hyperspace rife with symbolism representing our susceptibility to modes of belief.
“The Venetian blinds represent a blinkered worldview, while the telephone and flowers represent a way out of that cloistered conditioning, through communication and beauty,” says Endall. “In the final scene, the falling vase and flowers illustrate the fragility of even that pathway. The end game is being comfortable enough in your own skin to pray in whatever form works for you.”
Watch the video for “We All Pray” below:
Split Levels was written and recorded over the last fourteen months. The band’s performance moniker comes from a line in the Pet Shop Boys 1986 hit single, Suburbia. The dichotomy of fragility and darkness behind a perfect societal façade are expressed in Split Levels, a title referring to the popular Mid-Century design style for Split Level suburban homes.
Split Levels launches today via Bandcamp, Spotify, and all major digital/streaming music platforms.
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