Autogramm, the synth-driven, power-pop trio from Vancouver premiered a video for their latest single, "Mantra" today via Indie88, created by award-winning director Shayne Ehman (METZ/'Asphalt Watches'). The track is featured on the band's sophomore album, No Rules, out tomorrow via Nevado Records. Pre-order No Rules here.
Discussing "Mantra," guitarist/vocalist Jiffy Marx noted, "On our first tour to Mexico we flew in on a red eye flight then partied all night every night for a week. It was super fun but my internal clock never really adjusted - I'd be up until 3 or 4am every night and then waking at 7am, which is when I usually get up at home. The lyrics for 'Mantra' are literally a mantra I made up to help clear my mind on those mornings when every part of me except my stupid brain knew that I needed more than 3 or 4 hours sleep!"
Director Ehman added, "The members of Autogramm and I all have a relationship to skateboarding. The lyrics of "Mantra" describe a certain relationship to satori, meditation, focus/flow, repetition, mind/no mind, of being in the zone. Things which are felt when skateboarding is good yet are difficult if not impossible to describe using words. The song is a 'mantra'. A way of training to be prepared for flow when you need to flow".
Marx, bassist CC Voltage, and Chicago-based drummer The Silo, draw on influences from The Cars, The Go Go's, Gary Numan, 20/20 and Devo. Along with calling Canada, the U.S., UK and Germany home at various points, the band also has a long-standing connection to the art, punk, and skateboarding communities world-wide.
No Rules keeps with the band's tradition of crafting singalong pop-anthems, while adding angular elements that are reminiscent of Ghost in the Machine-era Police. For the band, the album title refers less to a no-gods-no-masters set of rules as it does to a no boundaries aspiration. Instead of building walls, they want to build bridges.
