Premiere: Glass Vaults Lift The Lid On New Video For 'Brooklyn'

Last month Glass Vaults unveiled their fantastic sophomore record The New Happy, an album that follows on the coattails of their 2014 debut album Sojourn but sees the group further refine their own brand of psychedelia tinged off-kilter pop. Ahead of hitting the road in a few weeks for a nationwide tour to celebrate the release of The New Happy, the group are rolling out a sweet clip for lead single 'Brooklyn' which sees the boys making the most of Auckland's iconic theme park Rainbow's End and has been augmented with some great graphics from animator Frances Haszard. Watch the video below and then scroll on to read our interview with bandmember Richard Larsen (and a little bit Bevan too!)...

Today your releasing the video for ‘Brooklyn’ which might be a good time to clear up something we’ve been wondering about. Is this Brooklyn in New Zealand, or New York, or some other third location? And what’s the significance of that particular place?

Ha yes, both places (Wellington and New York) hold a special significance to me but on this occasion it's all about Brooklyn, New York. We spent some time there as a band a few years ago and on returning home to Wellington I wrote this track, about a wonderful day spent on a friends roof top.

‘Brooklyn’ is of course on your new LP, The New Happy. Can you tell us a little bit about how this album came together and what it means to you when juxtaposed with your previous record, Sojourn?

Richard: Coming back from New York and an American tour in 2012 we really reassessed the projection of Glass Vaults, what type of music/ art we wanted to create... Sojourn was the beginning of a revelation in music production for us. Both Rowan and I listened to a lot of Talking Heads, Grace Jones and Tom Tom Club during that time and crafting good pop songs became a focus, though I like to think they are "Off Kilter" pop songs. During the rehearsal and recording of The New Happy we decided to strip the layers back even further in order to reveal the songs at their simplest form.

Bevan: I had imagined these new songs sounding flat and plain and that's what I would always say 'plain' not overly anything, so not overly reverb or roomy, or overly compressed, overly bright, overly bassey, a sound that would be quite coy and maybe mysterious and seductive. I wanted the sound to be psychedelic and euphoric without using time modulation effects, phasers/flangers. I started messing with transients of sound quite a bit and found that the audio would make me feel prickly when I accentuated certain transients and frequencies.

Richard: The New Happy was recorded a couple of months prior to releasing Sojourn, so it feels like a long time coming for these tracks. We recorded it live over three days at Blue Barn Studios in Wellington.

The clip your unveiling today looks like a lot of fun to make, where was it shot and what was the best ride at the fairground?

Haha yeah it definitely was a lot of fun, that was the aim! It was shot just before I left for Berlin and was one of the last times me and Rowan were going to see each other for a while... We made it in Auckland, Rainbow's End, Parakai Springs... I'm actually really afraid of heights so it wasn't all fun :p

We were lucky to get to work with animator Frances Haszard on this video who did all the awesome animation throughout, totally wouldn't have been the same without.

Any reservations about taking the camera down the waterslide?

Na, it was waterproof!

You’re about to play a few shows around the country in support of The New Happy, what are you looking forward to the most about hitting the road?

Oh yes our ASMR parties lol! I'm super excited to hang out with my band tbh, it'll have been over a year since we have played in public and we all live in different cities at the moment so that will be nice. Also super excited to get down to Dunedin, it's been a while but we love it down there!

Glass Vaults 'The New Happy' Release Tour

Friday 30th June, Golden Dawn, Auckland w/ Womb
Saturday 1st July, Caroline, Wellington w/ Terror of the Deep + Womb
Friday 7th July, Space Academy, Christchurch w/ Pickle Darling + Womb (solo)
Saturday 8th July, None Gallery, Dunedin w/ Womb (solo)

Tickets to all shows (except Auckland) available HERE at UTR