Steve Lake (Zounds) and Oakland opera singer Mia Dean have joined forces in a multidimensional, magical realist art project, unleashing the hypnotic Hot Blood In the Sun, off their upcoming album Blood Moon Wedding.
Today, in conjunction with the track’s release, is the occasion of the Super Flower Blood Moon 210526: the early morning brought the first total lunar eclipse in nearly two and a half years. Those glued to the sky were dazzled by the sight of the moon slipping into Earth’s shadow, while also appearing around 7% larger than usual. In the past ten years, there have been just ten total lunar eclipses.
With today’s cosmic alignment in mind, Hot Blood in the Sun bursts forth upon the world, with two concepts in mind: creating a piece that didn’t require the rest of the band, and as a means to introduce their collaboration…and intent. On the rest of the album, Mia Dean and Steve Lake are joined by drummer Jason Willer (Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, Cross Stitch Eyes, The Mob, Alaric), and Oakland composer Tom Dean on synths. The track was narrated by Jack Grisham of legendary California punk and deathrock band, TSOL and mixed by Skot Brown of Alter De Faye.
Blood Moon Wedding is road trip of horrors through an alternate reality. Set in the sprawling deserts of the United States, Steve and Mia find themselves trapped in a shadow world, where death and love are the only way through the gates of space and time. Exploring themes of mass murder, gun violence, and trauma bonding, Blood Moon Wedding is a dramatic commentary on the violence in American society. There are traces of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in their sound, wrapped in a Lynchian film noir. This is exciting, dangerous music.
Mia Dean is a writer and singer for the Oakland band Antler Family. She studied classical opera and performance in San Francisco with the great Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano, Blanche Thebom, and abroad. She sang opera on the stages of Italy and Austria before returning to California to focus on composition and production. Mia Dean co-founded the Oakland Metro Operahouse, where she met Steve in 2017 when Zounds was headlining Manic Relapse Fest. Known primarily as a great punk and metal venue, the Oakland Metro Operahouse is also an award-winning experimental opera company for which Dean has produced many operas, including The Turn of the Screw (B.Britten), Les Enfants Terribles (P.Glass), and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Brecht/Weil) for which she also co-wrote an updated libretto, The Hoodslam Opera.
Steve Lake is member of the influential English alt-rock group Zounds, an English anarcho punk/post-punk band, fronted by Lake. Founded in 1977, they were originally part of the cassette culture movement, releasing material on the Fuck Off Records label. Zounds were also involved in the squatting and free festival scene. Lake’s work is expansive and experimental. Beyond Zounds, he has produced and performed a number of spoken-word and multimedia events throughout Europe, including the Edinburgh Festival.
The video was filmed in California and at Rockaway Park in Somerset, UK. Watch below:
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