BODIES DOWNLOAD

“Bodies” was born of a nostalgia for the early-mid aughts...for house parties in the suburbs, for school and summer vacations, for being young. Almost instantly, it took on another meaning. It became about missing….well, everything. Normal life had been suspended. We hit pause. We began to miss the unceasing togetherness of touring. We missed one another. The song became about the helplessness and loneliness inherent to this peculiar, terrifying era. We decided to capture that loneliness by shooting a one shot video of Katie—masked up, rollerblading in slow motion—early in the morning on a quiet street in Pasadena in early May. We planned to drop the song at the end of that month.  

Then we heard of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis. Breonna Taylor’s in Kentucky. Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Tony McDade in Florida. So many others, murdered horrifically, senselessly. The names keep coming in. They should all still be here. They are not, and it is because of the deplorable and rampant sicknesses of anti-Blackness, white supremacy, the police (abolish ‘em), of transphobia, and of American racism. Normal life had been suspended yet again, but this time, many were taking to the streets - tens of thousands in Los Angeles alone, for weeks on end. We were among people again, in the largest social movement in global history. We hit pause, feeling it irresponsible to release dance music. 

We do not believe that there will ever be a “right” time to release music moving forward. In that same breath, we believe waiting for this moment in history (the COVID-19 pandemic, the ascension of the Black Lives Matter and the many local movements working toward systemic change) to “pass” implies that we want a return to “normal”: we do not. Nothing should return to normal. We should let these times change us, and we should dig our heels in and ready ourselves to change with them. We used to think that this song was about being nostalgic for our pasts, but maybe this song is nostalgic for something that we’ve never had, a space that we’ve imagined from the beginning of our band, where all bodies, regardless of race, sexuality, gender, religion, or nationality, can come together and be free on the dance floor. We hope “Bodies” reminds you of a place you hope to be one day. We hope it brings you some joy. We look forward to being together with you all again, to dance in what will hopefully be a new dawn, in a new, better world."