Dream pop heroes The Ocean Blue have unveiled their video for “Kings and Queens” a song from their new album Queens/Knaves and Thieves, which comes out June 21.
“We’re all older,” singer David Schelzel explained to Billboard about the premiere. “We’re kind of in mid-life now and everybody in the band has been through either life, death or huge loss in the last couple of years and it just makes you stop, pause and think about what you’re doing, and why. Songs have always been a way for me to deal with what I’m going through and what I’m thinking.”
“This season of life has been particularly difficult,” added Schelzel, “and it just kind of came out in these songs I was writing.
The video was directed by Allison LaBonne, and pays homage to the iconic scene in Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal.
“It’s the first video we’ve done in a long time where I feel like we had the time to execute on a concept that made sense for the song,” Schelzel says of the clip, which was filmed on the northern shoreline of Minnesota, “which is a lot like the southern coast of Sweden where (Bergman) made a lot of those films. The song really sets the theme for the record, more than any we’ve done in a long time, wrestling with those big questions.”
Watch the video below:
“I think what’s kept the Ocean Blue going is the relationships,” Schelzel continued in his statement to Billboard:
“These guys are my friends and we have relationships that go really deep. I think it means that we enjoy making music together, we enjoy traveling and playing shows together, and I care about the guys. You can’t ask for more than that from a band, can you?”
See The Ocean Blue full dates below. Ticket information is available at the band’s website.
The Ocean Blue tour dates
- June 22: Tellus 360, Lancaster, PA
- June 23: Rough Trade, Brooklyn, NY
- June 27: The Crocodile, Seattle, WA
- June 28: Holoscene, Portland, OR
- July 26: Fine Line, Minneapolis, MN
- Nov. 1: The Magic Bag, Detroit, MI
