Night Beats Shares Video For “Thank You” From New Album Out July 14

Danny Lee Blackwell, the L.A.-based artist who carries with him a deep love for psychedelic music in all its various forms, is back this year with Rajan, a new album recorded under the name Night Beats that’s set to be co-released on July 14th by Suicide Squeeze and Fuzz Club. Exciting news on its own, but the multi-talented musician continues to amp up our anticipation this morning with a fresh single from this record “Thank You,” complete with a brilliantly trippy video.
The clip, directed by Austin filmmaker Vanessa Pla, feels like equal parts Alejandro Jodorowsky, Black Orpheus and The Mighty Boosh as Blackwell finds himself in the company of — and is slowly swallowed up by — a group of masked figures that, at one point, leave him completely naked on the floor while the camera spins overhead. Read into these eye-popping visuals what you will, but here’s what Blackwell had to say about this new video:
Collaborating with Vanessa Pla, the director of the “Thank You” music video, has been an exceptional experience. Vanessa has a profound understanding of the creative process, and has helped me to transform my concept into a meaningful work of art. In the video, the 12 masked figures symbolize the limitations of our innermost desires and struggles, as the story follows an alchemical journey of transformation. Vanessa’s vision for the video was to highlight the power of transformation as an alchemical process, which reinforces the significance of the simple gesture of saying “Thank You.” This concept challenged me as an artist to explore deeper meanings and to convey them through simple ideas. Through our collaboration, we were able to create a compelling visual story that captures the essence of transformation and gratitude.
Before we could let Blackwell slip off once again into the arms of his masked companions, we sent him some questions via email about getting nude on camera, the influence of his mom on his music and what the rest of the year holds for himself and Night Beats.
Paste: Really love the new video – but I always have to ask artists like yourself: do you enjoy the process of making clips like this or do you view this as a necessary evil?
Danny Lee Blackwell: Thank you. Finding others who help in challenging ideas and exploring is fun. We might find alternate meanings to things or ways to explain a message, and that’s cool to me. I love to see what other musicians or artists see, so if I can share my vision, then I’m taking part in the conversation. My friends Caleb and Katya helped me make the masks in the video, and I gave them to the volunteers that helped with the video. So it’s a communal experience.
Paste: Was it a comfortable thing to get naked on camera for this?
Danny Lee Blackwell: It’s the same feeling of going out on stage every night, in a way. I mean art is conquering fear or embracing it, no? I can separate the action from myself to where I don’t get my intent mixed up — art comes first. After all, I feel like some of my other stuff shows way more than skin, in a different way.
Paste: How did you come to work with Vanessa Pla, who directed the video?