Alec Spicer
The Video For The Electronic Duo’s New Single Is A Dark And Dreary Journey In Search Of Human Connection During The Most Isolating Of Times.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
Welcome Center – “Near Death”
RIYL: Being reminded it’ll all be alright.
What Else You Should Know: Jesse Smith and Aaron Sternick of Welcome Center have a knack for supplying flickers of optimism to melancholic storytelling, be it through their music, lyrics or visual components. The brand new video for their single, “Near Death” encapsulates this perfectly, and we’re delighted to exclusively premiere it right here on Central Track.
“Near Death” was released earlier this month and is dark and dreamy excursion that seeks human connection — not unlike the bleak, socially distant times we’re living in. The song swims through a blitz of trigger-ready synth and buoyant sax lines for a balance between contemplative fear and hopefulness.
“The the isolation/disconnection due to the times played a big role,” Smith says.
The video for “Near Death” was directed by Dallas’ Richard Krause (who has directed videos for the likes of Sarah Jaffe and Rico Nasty) and finds a woman, who, riddled by her own devices, trips acid before diving into a metaphysical rabbit hole of sorts.
“I told [Krause], ‘Fuck, this is so much better than the song,'” Smith recalls. “He thought I was full of shit, but I truly believe that — something about this music video, especially the last minute, really hits home for me emotionally.”
Around the song’s halfway mark, a key change floats the song toward a slightly more sanguine tone, one that Smith and Sternick wanted to feel like a tug of emotions as it all comes to a head. Much like the song, the video leans into that personal interpretation of conflicting emotions, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions for what happens to the woman as one of the final shots shows her lying unconscious on a bed.
“I think the ending can be viewed as hopeful or depressing — two emotions I feel the song captures as well,” Smith says. “I look at the video as ending on a hopeful note — that whatever this character is searching for is found, even if it’s a sad hopefulness.”