Scenes of a Past Life

Los Angeles band Songs for Sabotage share the music video to their latest single, “Pills”. The band opens up about a past life of constantly partying, how the video takes you through different drug moods, and shedding your skin and moving on.

Los Angeles, USA

What is the story behind your band songs for sabotage?

We met when we both lived in NY. We’d both been playing in the NY scene but our paths hadn’t crossed until Richey was DJing one night at a bar called NOJ in Williamsburg. I approached him because he was playing some cool stuff. We got talking and bonded over our mutual taste in music. We were both involved in other projects at the time - Richey in a post punk goth duo and me in a garage rock band. We were both not feeling fulfilled in either of our projects and itching to do something different but we didn’t really plan on starting a band together. It just kinda happened. We would hang out and jam a lot and eventually those jams turned into songs that we wanted to play live. We didn’t have a name for the project/band as we weren’t even sure what it was but one day we were in the book store Strand on Broadway in NY and Richey pulled out a book that said “Songs for Sabotage” on it. And for some reason it just kinda stuck.

How has moving from New York City to Los Angeles changed your perspective on music and art?

In NY we’d be inspired by the people in the streets, live shows on every corner, etc. Art just exists everywhere in NY whereas in LA you have to go out and search for it more. We appreciate a lot of music that comes from LA a lot more after living here for a little over 3 years. The subcultures here feel like a true part of the city’s DNA unlike in NY, where they are constantly shifting. LA’s vibe is also more suburban/commercial in nature but that’s just the landscape out here.

You are sharing the music video to your latest single, 'Pills'. What is the story behind the song? How does the music video represent what the song is about?

‘Pills’ is about a past life where you used to be up all night partying and sleeping all day. Then one day you realize that it’s all BS and not real and that the people you thought were your friends are just fake and phony scensters, who don’t actually care about you. Awakening to all of this is a bitter pill to swallow but you’re shedding that skin and moving on.

The different rooms in the video represent different moods based on the drugs you would take while out partying. We have the weed room where we’re paranoid, the MDMA room where we’re high energy and happy, the shroom room where we’re tripping, etc.

How did the video come to life?

We found this set that had various rooms in it that could work to represent all these different vibes and emotions. Once we had the location in place we worked with Rick Perez, who directed the video, to help bring out the different performances on set. And Logan MacLachlan, the DP, worked on having different lighting setups and camera styles for each of the rooms as well.

What were some highs and lows in making the video?

The high was definitely working with Rick and Logan. So easy and comfortable to work with, just a chill and fun day!

Can’t think of any lows - maybe when we didn’t get any utensils with our lunch lol

How does the song "Pills" differ from your previous music? How does it show your growth as a band?

Our first album together was very ‘happen stance’ in the sense that we didn’t plan on having a band and making music together. It just happened naturally from hanging out and jamming together and those songs were what came out of it. For our second album we had started working on some new songs but weren’t really vibing entirely on them - we felt like they needed something more. So we actually did like a complete overhaul on a lot of the songs, less guitars, more minimal and synth based. We experimented a bit more with the overall sound design, basically remixing the earlier versions of the songs.

What's next for the song? What's next for the band?

‘Pills’ has just dropped so we’re promoting the song atm, but we’ve already gearing up to drop our next single in August. Our album, which will be called ‘Clean Trauma’, will drop later this fall. All the songs are about various traumatic events in our lives but packaged in minimal ‘clean’ pop songs lol