Empath

Having finished a run of dates Stateside with Modest Mouse, Empath announce new album, Visitor due 11th February via Fat Possum and share video directed by Halle Ballard for lead single Diamond Eyelids.

Coming in at a little over 2 minutes Diamond Eyes is a noisy exploration of infectious indie pop from the Philadelphia quartet. The second track to be shared from forthcoming album Visitor following previous single Born 100 Times which takes on a more direct punkier ethos.

Commenting on the latest track vocalist Catherine Elicson explains "This song was written in a stream of consciousness from a few pieced together memories I had. One of coming downstairs at my house one morning and unexpectedly finding a friend who lives on the other side of the country asleep on the couch, and the other memory was of when a friend used to travel from Chicago an hour and a half to the suburbs to work full time at a low paying Americorps job. Collaging memories in a way that created an emotional narrative about reaching for a fleeting moment of connection and familiarity."

Discussing the video Elicson explains: “the idea for this music video was spawned from a desire to have some kind of puppet video of us made. I knew that Halle could pull that off, so she started making all of us and our instruments out of papier mache, which took a couple months. When it came to the clothes we weren’t really sure how to go about making those. I suggested maybe they just stay naked and be babies in a womb, and the whole concept of the video kind of snowballed from that. Halle had a pregnancy suit from a previous project, and we agreed it would take the video to a weird psychological level and also be funny if I were to wear it and give birth to myself and the rest of the band. A lot of Halle’s work deals with mother daughter themes so it just felt like it made sense to go that direction.

Lynsey Gillies