Leaving their usual musical backdrop of angular guitars & thundering drums, Dead
Naked Hippies have delved into the world of synths to create new single ‘Curiosity (Dawn)’.
The track is built around quirky homemade synths & frontwoman Lucy Jowett’s striking vocals. The accompanying one-shot video was created by the band in the deserted streets of Leeds.
Locked up in their Leeds flat, Dead Naked Hippies’ Lucy and Joe found themselves cut off from the studio, practice room and even bandmate Jacob. They broke down any preconceived ideas of what their music should be and began delving into new sounds, re-working songs that had been strictly guitar, drums and vocals before now. Frontwoman Lucy explains, “Curiosity (Dawn) is a question of existence and purpose, how life shapes us & we shape it, and reflecting on it as if it were coming to an end. Society is so focused on moving at pace, achieving, doing, proving & sometimes it feels so ingrained into us, that this is the way we should be. Lyrically, I wanted to explore myself beyond expectation – what does it mean to be human?”
The song sees the band take on and embrace self-production for the first time, learning everything from scratch during lockdown. It was their first time self-producing their own music. Once lockdown set in, everything changed but Lucy explains how the band tried to focus on what they could control and learn “Honing our production skills has given us something to focus on, to create a silver lining out of a not so great situation & it has been an extremely liberating process”
This also pushed them to making their own video for the track. Lucy expands on the process and the freedom this brought, “The video was captured in one shot. We were set on the idea of capturing a moment, much like a live show – imperfect, but full of excitement. The video you see was the first & only full take we captured on the day we set aside to film it, it felt really special to approach in this way & was definitely a reaction to the lack of live performance in our lives this year.”
They have been awarded funding through leading UK music charity Help Musicians UK’s ‘Do it Differently’ fund, have been supported by Music:Leeds’ Launchpad programme & have previously released with Leeds indie label Dance To The Radio & artist development organisation Come Play With Me . The band are extremely open about what drives them and aren’t afraid to discuss confrontational topics, speaking about self-love, mental health and gender in an open and unapologetic way, both in their music & in conversation.
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