The Los Angeles-based band Ray & Remora emerged in the spring of 2014 with their EP 1994, featuring six synthedelic covers of indie rock gems that originally came out twenty years prior. Startle it Up, their full-length debut of 11 original tracks, was released last year on Aeronaut Records.
Startle it Up drifts from synth-driven epic ballads to head-bopping indie pop, all the while highlighting 23-year old Remora’s lush, emotive vocals. Comparisons have been made to bands like Florence & the Machine, Ms Mr and HAIM, though the songwriting is still rooted in the influences covered on 1994—bands like Guided By Voices, Pavement, and Sebadoh.
Today Glide Magazine is presenting an exclusive preview of one of the new video for the song “Don’t Shoot Me Down”. The video was conceived and directed by USC student Lina Suh who had this to say about creating it: “I listened to the sound of the song first, how it felt, then read the lyrics repeatedly, jotting down visuals and ideas that occurred. One thing that I felt pretty immediately was a fiery spirit trapped in nostalgia, inherent in an ending relationship, that it fights to shake off. I sensed a wonderful cinematic opportunity in the sound and story, and though we wouldn’t have much of a budget to work with, I started the scope wild and trusted that we would find a way to scale it back enough to create the journey that lives up to the song’s fiery spirit.”
Amanda Walker aka Remora has this to say about the video: “Lina is truly an amazing director. I’m still in awe how she got so many beautiful shots in just two days. What a whirlwind – after the 4am all day first day shoot, we had the second day of shooting at my house. At 10am fifteen kids AND their parents showed up to shoot the birthday party scene. It was madness. And I had bought all these colorful toys I thought looked pretty, forgetting that giving kids toys means they will destroyyyyyy and conquer. If they weren’t acting they were firing helicopter guns EVERYWHERE. We had a grand ol’time.”
WATCH:
[youtube id=”lJJt1Adyv7Q” width=”630″ height=”350″]
More info:
iTunes album link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/startle-it-up/id1121391396
https://www.facebook.com/RayandRemora
http://rayandremora.com
