Have you ever noticed Andy can’t have candy, can he?
He likes films with morbid endings
Sometimes people just need a break from three-dimensional reality for inspiration. This was certainly the case for Choir Boy, who announce their 2022 tour with a lysergic-soaked video for “Sweet Candy” from 2020’s Gathering Swans, one of Post-Punk.com’s picks for the best album of that year.
“Sweet Candy expresses the sugar cravings and lovesickness of someone who denies themselves the excitement and bliss of romantic fulfillment,” explains frontman Adam Klopp. “They’ve had a taste, but have opted for a sugar-free diet.”
Klopp described the initial songwriting process for Sweet Candy as arduous, so he and guitarist Michael Paulsen sought the aid of…psychedelia. The results were both hilarious – and fuel for creativity – as their biases ebbed their way out during the trip.
“Midway through the day I began imagining the song as a neighborhood in a 1950s musical,” says Klopp. “When the instrumentation sounded natural to me, it felt like the characters were going about their business on a calm Saturday morning, chiming in to the neighborhood gossip when they saw fit.” Klopp’s angelic voice, sounding like a mix of Tears For Fears’ Curt Smith and Bronski Beat’s Jimmy Somerville, brings the already-trippy video into truly surrealist heights.”
“A meal of garlic bread and tomato sauce their producer made in the studio also found its way into the song. The sauce was fragrant and seemed to take forever to cook. In the middle of someone’s take, the toaster oven bell dinged a great ding. ‘Someone’s cooking something good!’ I thought. So we incorporated the bell sound in the drums. The day continued like that with many ideas tiptoeing the line between rotten and wrong. Finally, after an exhausting day of stimulating playtime, we drank some fancy bottled water and went home.”
Work on the long-delayed video began a few weeks before the initial Covid lockdowns hit in the USA.
“I remember walking around a candy store at the mall looking for props and snacks, and rolling my eyes at Michael, who was explaining how we’d likely soon be isolating for perhaps a year or more. I didn’t believe him, despite his track record of being right about things he reads on Twitter. I shan’t lament our cancelled video shoot now, but needless to say it took longer to make than we hoped. So here you have it, a slow cooked recipe! Straight from the crock pot to YouTube.”
The video stars Jeremy Divine, Dyana Durfee, Peter Goldie, Madison Donnelly, Annie Avila, Josh Brown, Tate Dunham and Malicia Domínguez.
Watch “Sweet Candy” below:
Gathering Swans is out now via DAIS records. Order here.
Choir Boy are set to embark on a North American tour with Riki starting March 15th. After that, the SLC boys head to Europe with Soft Kill.
Tour Dates
Choir Boy and RIKI:
Choir Boy:
Choir Boy and Soft Kill:
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