Hot off the heels of releasing their recent collaboration with Denzel Curry, Glass Animals the video for their latest single. “Tokyo Drifting” is part of the band’s Fresh Fruit series of collaborations. The video was directed by rubberband and shot in Yonkers, New York.

On the inspiration behind the video, rubberband says, “We were inspired by a variety of things: the handmade nature of Iza Genzken’s collage work, ‘90s video games, ‘80s comic books. We sort of filtered all this through the lens of the myth of the Minotaur. The video was shot in Yonkers at an abandoned Catholic school (I’m sure the church would be thrilled). We really wish the toilets had worked…”

They continue, saying, “Mostly, we just wanted to make something that felt different. Post was a lot like playing jazz, we experimented with a wide variety of different animation techniques and titling. In the end, Dave put a lot of trust in us and we are very grateful for that.”

Glass Animals are a British four-piece project led by singer, songwriter and producer Dave Bayley with his bandmates and childhood friends Joe Seaward, Ed Irwin-Singer and Drew Macfarlane. Their second album, How To Be A Human Being, was one of the most critically acclaimed and widely adored records of 2016 and went on to be nominated for the Mercury Album Of The Year Award in 2017. As well as producing both ZABA and How To Be A Human BeingI, Dave has worked with a number of artists outside of the band including 6lack, Khalid, Joey Bada$$, DJ Dahi, Flume and MorMor. 

Glass Animals recently played a surprise show at Oxford’s The Bullingdon which sold out in 37 seconds. Stay tuned for a lot more live plans from Glass Animals in the new year...

Lokki today releases the video for his latest single ‘High’ which is out now as a split single alongside ‘On Our Own’ via Wolf Tone (The Horrors, Rosie Lowe). It’s the first new music from Lokki - the solo project of Glass Animals’ Drew MacFarlane - since his debut EP Cirrhi which arrived earlier this year. Following solo shows across 2018, the new release will be followed by soon-to-be-announced live dates from Drew.

Sprung from writing sessions at his flat in leafy South London, the deliciously off-beat pop of ‘High’ finds Drew fleshing out the nocturnal vulnerability which characterised so much of the gauzy Cirrhi EP. Picking at that disconnect between the individual & collective experience, ’High’ refracts a nervy questioning of identity through MacFarlane’s love for classical composition.

“A big part of the song is about zooming way out, seeing your life (and other peoples’ lives) fast forwarded, a bit like a time lapse. The paint moving across the screen plays with everything in the video, including me, mirroring how all of our actions ripple out into the world, even though we don’t always see it.”

Whilst both ‘High’ and ‘On Our Own’ began life as arrangements for a string quartet, they bear out a refreshingly on-the-fly approach to creating new music. “I think it’s good to allow songs to take their course and become what they’re supposed to be” says Drew, “Rather than imposing order from the outside. I think there’s definitely a way of looking at it which is ‘what does the song need?’ rather than ‘what do I want?’. It’s deciding at what point in a song’s evolution you choose to record it, to add lyrics. It’s about letting things unfold”.