By the time the 2016 presidential election was decided Speedy Ortiz was just about finished their third album. After that point, though, band leader Sadie Dupuis decided the personal songs she had written weren’t what the band needed to release at that time. So, she re-wrote almost the entire album, and that resulted in some excellent tracks like “Lucky 88” and “Lean In When I Suffer.”
Twerp Verse‘s third single, however, is a holdover from the band’s pre-election songs: “Villain” was written in 2014, and Dupuis says it “is about the mental gymnastics survivors have to do, and the relief that comes when you talk through trauma with your friends, family, therapist, or whoever helps you let go of the shame you don’t deserve to feel.” The song is also accompanied by a colorful video, directed by Elle Schneider, which uses contrasting and blending colors to show how obvious (or not-so-obvious) harassment can appear.
Watch the “Villain” video above, and read Dupuis’ full statement about the song and video below.
“‘Villain’ is about the mental gymnastics survivors have to do, and the relief that comes when you talk through trauma with your friends, family, therapist, or whoever helps you let go of the shame you don’t deserve to feel. I wrote this song in 2014, and writing it served that kind of function for me. We were lucky to have one of our favorite musicians, Danny Seim of Menomena, add additional synths and percussion to this track.
In talking through the video concept with director Elle Schneider, who’s been a friend and collaborator for over a decade and also directed the ‘My Dead Girl’ video, we decided to address the pervasiveness of harassment. Using color-blocking and contrasting backgrounds, Elle shows how sometimes these transgressions are obvious, but sometimes they camouflage into the background and go unnoticed — at home, at work, and in public spaces. Because she’s a genius genre nerd (and she knew we couldn’t help ourselves from making another monster-themed Speedy Ortiz videos) Elle chose, in her words, a ‘Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls/Warhol/Roger Corman B-Movie style of 60’s look,’ and personified harassment into an insidious fish monster. Someone on set during the shooting described it succinctly: ‘It’s like The Shape Of Water, but not at all romantic.'”
Twerp Verse is out 4/27 via Carpark Records. Pre-order it here.
