Devendra Banhart has previewed his upcoming album Flying Wig with a new song, ‘Sirens’. Following lead cut ‘Twin’, the track arrives with a video co-starring multidisciplinary artist Dorian Wood and comedians Tim Heidecker and Mitra Jouhari. Check out the clip, a collaboration with Christian Stavros directed by Joseph Wasilewski, below.
“‘Sirens’ is about the bewilderment that precedes longing, the space between ‘everything hurts’ and ‘oh there’s a nail stuck in my back,’ it’s like the relief mixed with fear that comes from finally finding the target,” Banhart explained in a statement. “We haven’t hit it yet – but we know where to aim, that’s where the ‘And Yet’-ness of this song is. Another theme that seems prevalent throughout the album is obstacles into antidotes. I mean, what a bummer right? ‘Only the violence will ever hold me tight’ but if there’s no getting rid of then our only sane option is to learn to dance with it. This is all lyrical…musically we wanted it to feel like dancing alone, weeping in a crowd, and somehow even relaxing into that melancholy, the sensual side of sorrow, the mournful side of joy.”
“We wanted to make a mini sci fi film that was equally dystopian and utopian,” Banhart added of the video. “What we came up with was a world where only artists are allowed to run for any government positions, the presidency is always shared between two people. In our world two legends won, Tim Heidecker and Mitra Jouhari, and in this world everyone’s a masseuse and massages are mandatory (played by myself and the amazing Dorian Wood) and crying is obligatory and enforced by law.”
Flying Wig, which was recorded with Cate Le Bon in a cabin studio in Topanga, is due out September 22 2023 via Mexican Summer.