Weekend Lovers Release Single ‘Rad Red’
Meet Weekend Lovers, a dynamic trio from Tucson, AZ. With praise from press like Impose Magazine and stage time alongside acts like Beabadoobee and Snail Mail, the band is steadily carving out a place of their own.
Weekend Lovers continue to explore their sonic realm of daydreams. Armed with earworm melodies, poetic intensity (and a sound where nostalgic synth-pop intertwines with the satisfying grit of post-rock), Weekend Lovers are quickly gaining recognition for their seamless genre blending.
Their music feels like the roots of an oak tree: deep, intricate, and interconnected… yet also fluid, intriguing.
Their latest project? ‘Rad Red,’ a music video single that dips into lo-fi textures with hints of psychedelia.
It opens with a lone guitar arpeggiating downward. Visually, a woman dances with the moon glowing behind her. Then the vocals begin: dreamy, fuzzed-out, otherworldly…Something raw and animalistic stirs. It feels innate. The imagery of the film shifts to a black widow spider, a hand moving, and a woman amongst the trees. This surreal sort of collage takes on a cosmic, nostalgic quality that feels all-encompassing.
As the band describes: “Runaway love affairs are what happens when we can’t afford to migrate anymore. Goth dancing at clubs, poured solo cups in hand, we rely on our animal haste. Only finding some salvation in the bleached entertainment of our backyard desert.”
Then the beat drops. A steady boom-chick rhythm that makes the track immensely danceable. The desert appears, but only as a reflection in a red solo cup. Pagan, a singer, wears an animal mask in the desert and releases a long melisma that is simultaneously mournful, confident, and naturalistic…“And I feel you, you gotta get away.”
The song swells as we experience soulful longing, craving, confusion… And the deep post-rock beats carry it ever-forward.
Feet move, eyes close and open… The video shows dancers with boas and sunglasses…“Rad Red” has woven together happiness, darkness, and perhaps the essence of a soul and its dynamism.
The song ends abruptly, and we are left wondering: Is this about a place in the mind, a location in the world, or a dreamscape far beyond both? There is a deep undercurrent of bleakness, Nietzschean, but it is balanced with this touch of wonder…
That is the paradox of Weekend Lovers. Their music, like Shakespeare, feels timeless and universal. It exists in any setting and blends lived reality with cosmic mystery.
Follow this group as the sonic journey continues with their upcoming album, ‘In Your Dreams.’
“Their music, like Shakespeare, feels timeless and universal. It exists in any setting and blends lived reality with cosmic mystery…”
Does the name ‘Rad Red’ connect to the symbolism of a solo cup, or something else?
No not really, ha. The red solo cup though I enjoyed seeing whilst editing the music video dance scenes! They do represent some of the high low choices of the video’s meaning. The color red represents the intense Arizona sun that shines almost over 95 degrees 6 months out of the year. It was that hot at 9pm in late September during our video shoot sans AC and a smoke machine ha! My poor dancing friends.Where did you first encounter the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees, and how has it inspired your creativity?
I heard them at goth type clubs growing up. Something dangerous, danceable but with an excited edgy energy I feel ‘Rad Red’ has all that in common with that band.
You mentioned nihilism in this single. Who is your favorite nihilist, and why?
Ha, I only know Nietzsche in theory. The nihilism in the song’s inspiration comes from wanting to run away forever or temporarily from the oppressive hot weather. But the migration isn’t allowed anymore for lack of funds or everywhere is growing less livable. So we might as well dance or have a love affair in the place we are in. Even if it’s destructive, at least it’s our destruction – entertainment.
What was your recording process like at St. Cecelia Studios with Stephen Tracy? What were the easiest and hardest parts of recording ‘Rad Red’?
It was pretty intuitive as Steven Lee Tracy (St. Cecilia Studios) got the references. I went back and forth on the effects on my vocal parts as I always do! But definitely had Siouxsie in mind as the vocal “big picture” mood. Since it’s such a grandiose almost unconventionally structured song, we had some anxiety that it wouldn’t sound as good as it did live.
What moment convinced you that this should be a single for the new album?
It’s always been such a sexy beast of a song to play. Even in the practice space. Live, same! It’s the song someone from the audience will always take video of, or asks us “what song was that?!” We always play it. It probably was one of the fastest songs we collabed together. Originally based off of Dane’s guitar riff (s) then Rick and I did our thing. One practice and the structure was pretty much there.
Lastly, what is the salvation you mention? Is the backyard a literal backyard, a place in the mind, or something else?
Sure. Making something out of the grubby beauty of my back yard in Tucson, which is where some of the music video was filmed. I referenced black and white imagery here as some Wizard of Oz reference. I ended up collaging the color parts with those that I think came out dynamic. The creativity as salvation whether you bump into cactus as a kid here playing see it as some S & M reference later on. Escapism we can all afford, like karaoke in the music video or not taking ourselves too seriously is the lesson to hold onto as the world falls apart.
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