hell is dull
Chasing that High
Los Angeles band Westerner share the music video for their single, '“Hell is Dull”. The band opens up about the making of the video, the LA music scene, and always looking for the biggest fix.
Los Angeles, USA
Who is Westerner and what is your music all about ?
"Hey I'm Cooper, I play guitar and the vocal cords." (Cooper)
"I'm Brandon, I play the bass and sing backing cords."
"Yo, I'm Mike..I hit the drums."
Cooper: We're three weirdos that play music that's somewhere between pop and avant garde rock music... It's all about connecting deeper with yourself and having a good time. It hits you in the feels and the heels.
You recently released your album, "Kali Yuga Kama Sutra". What kind of story are you trying to tell?
Cooper: There's a lot of personal stuff in there about finding strength and being true to yourself, and there's also some topical things relating to the chaos that has been encroaching on society. The album starts humourous and light with songs about sex and parties and goes into a more internal state. Hypnagogia is sort of a doorway to the second half of the album. It's about dreams and the rest of the album goes into internal spaces about spirituality, nature, and chaos.
Brandon: There's a lot of playing with the idea of opposites, such as light and dark, major and minor, sex and lonerism...as we put the songs together for this album it was important that these opposites played off each other but also contradicted each other.
How does this album show your growth as a band since your first album, "Unreal City"?
Brandon: It's a collection of songs that the three of us collaborated on and wrote together, which is the reason why it's special. Before 'Kali Yuga Kama Sutra', the music was mainly written by Cooper. This journey of an album has all the flares and different spices that make up our individual personalities and musical influences.
Mike: Since we collaborated on this together we learned how to work together, and the music shows that.
Cooper: I think the songs have become tighter and poppier, whereas the first album is more psychedelic, more artrock.
How does Westerner's perspective stand out from the other bands in the Los Angeles music scene? What makes you unique?
Cooper: My mom says I'm the handsomest man in the whole LA Scene!
Mike: My mom says that about you too!! I think as a group we're very collectively driven, no shade.
Cooper: I think we make it a point to make something that's not derivative, that sounds new and interesting. I really like sounds on albums that make me think 'I've never heard that before, I don't know how that was made'. Besides that, we don't really like to repeat ourselves.
Brandon: We don't like to repeat ourselves!
Cooper: YEAH, that's right! We don't like to repeat ourselves!!
Brandon: But seriously, I think a lot of bands focus on one of the following; melodious vocal lines, dark and twisted harmonies or ensuring each song has danceability; whereas with us, it's not a Westerner song without at least those 3 things.
You are sharing the video to your single, "Hell is Dull". What is this song about ? How does the video represent the song ?
Brandon: This song, simply put, is about testing your pleasure limits and never feeling satisfied. We've all experienced, in one way or another, becoming almost "addicted" to the rush and serotonin boost of one of life's pleasures; that the next time you're looking for that "fix" it becomes harder to achieve that same level of pleasure.
Mike: It's about addiction in all its forms and trying to chase the initial high.
Cooper: It's a tongue and cheek song about that moment when you realize you've gone too far with something. It's about trying to jack up the level of intensity of the experience, so that it matches the feeling of the first time...and then you realize at some point that it's never going to be enough, so whoops!
The video pretty much represents the song, haha.
Mike: Yeah...in the form of a party!
Cooper: It's shot from my point of view while attending a party. I'm basically going around trying to get the biggest "hit” of whatever's available. There's demons and gimps and by the end the partygoers erupt into a ravenous frenzy and more or less tear us apart.
Brandon: I got to be a gimp so it was just another Saturday for me...
Mike: I think the use of the snorricam and the POV shots throughout the whole video gave it the feeling that you were actually at the party, which I think is pretty clever.
What was making the video like? What were some highs and lows ?
Cooper: Well, we put the whole video together, start to finish in about 6 days. It was stressful, but we do tend to operate well under stressful situations. We had a plan for another video concept and it sort of fell apart last minute, so we had to put this together quickly. Luckily, it came together well.
Brandon: Yeah I agree, it's a little more stressful but also kinda fun under pressure. We reached out to our friends to see who could join us, and they gave up their whole Saturday to shoot the video. We're so grateful to have awesome friends! In addition, it was our first time working with an outside director and director of photography for the shoot. Selena Moshell was super professional, kept us all on track but also made it fun for everyone, so it didn't seem like work. And Michael Morones had that special eye for the little details of each shot, making sure the vision for the video came to life.
What's next for Westerner ?
Mike: We're shifting our focus now to touring to support this album and also working on new songs for the next album.
Brandon: We've got a lot of things planned for the next couple of years, including an animated, psychedelic film that features all the orginal songs from the "Unreal City" album. In addition to that, we've been writing some new material that will be exploring different genres and sounds.
Cooper: We're going to put out 3-4 music videos to promote 'Kali Yuga Kama Sutra' and tour as much as possible to support it.
