Watch Django Django’s New Music Video, “Surface to Air”

British-based rock band Django Django have shared their brand-new music video for “Surface to Air,” off of their recently released album Marble Skies. The song features the vocals of Self Esteem, aka Slow Club’s Rebecca Taylor. This pairing marks the second collaboration between the two parties, as Django Django drummer/producer David Maclean released Self Esteem’s first song via his label Kick + Clap.

“Surface To Air” is sexy, playing off the seductive power of Self Esteem to the best of its abilities with a dancehall-inspired beat. The British quartet features Maclean along with singer/ guitarist Vincent Neff, bassist Jimmy Dixon and Tommy Grace on the synths. Their debut album Django Django got them highlighted as Paste’s Best of What’s Next in 2012. Marble Skies is the band’s third studio album, with “Surface To Air” being the first time the band has featured an outside vocalist in one of their songs.

Neff commented on the song in a statement:

The song is about two people trying to suss where they are with each other and figuring what the future holds. I always imagined them sitting in a car at the top of a hill at dusk with a large expansive sky in front of them. I love that the video has a dusty, twilight quality near the end. It’s how I originally saw it in my head.

The music video, produced by Dir Lx, was filmed in an abandoned town outside of Madrid and features Self Esteem singing alone on top of an abandoned car as the band briefly appear on a television screen diving into a blue pool of water.

Dir Lx further explains:

The creative concept for the video came out of a desire to reference Hype Williams’ classic promo style. We wanted to make a hip-hop video, but due to Django’s aesthetic it needed a twist. I played around with setting it in a few different locations and we ended up in this eerie ghost town outside Madrid. The juxtaposition of a hip-hop solo performance set in a visually warped and twisted ghost town felt like nothing I’d seen before. The town itself was planned with aspirations as a commuter town but when the Spanish financial crisis hit, all development was halted. So now there’s a tiny community living in the centre of an unfinished town. We spent a day working out the best locations for the performance and then had a day for the shoot. Everything was lit naturally, so we only had a thirty-minute window to catch the golden-drenched period of the beautiful Spanish sunset.

With this video, Django Django have also announced the North American leg of their world tour. The band will kick things off in nowhere else but Indio, Calif., at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. You can find their full tour dates, including European and North American stops, here and their new dates below. Marble Skies is available here, and you can watch the surreal and poppy music video for “Surface To Air” below, as well. Then, revisit Paste’s review of the band’s second studio album Born Under Saturn here.

Django Django Tour Dates

April
14 – Indio, Calif. @ Coachella
21 – Indio, Calif. @ Coachella
23 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumo’s
24 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Commodore Ballroom
25 – Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom
27 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Independent
28 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Great American Music Hall