Los
Angeles quintet Young Hunting will release their sophomore album True
Believers on February 15 via Gold Robot Records (
pre-order). Young Hunting have announced a hometown record release show taking place on February 28 at Harvard & Stone. Today the band shared the official video for "Sargasso" which was directed by Emily Beyda with
The Talkhouse.
About the video the band says, "Inspired by early synthpop pioneers like
Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears, 'Sargasso' explores the depths of commitment and unconditional love over the course of a life cut tragically short. The video is one of the last projects to be filmed at LA's
Paramount Ranch before the devastating wildfires of 2018 consumed most of the historic film set." Director Emily Beyda told The Talkhouse, "This video is a love letter. A letter to the stranger who built that driftwood fort. To the countless men and women who have made movies and rode horses and gotten married in the hills of Malibu. To strange and beautiful spaces of Los Angeles, a city built on the joyfully impractical project of committing dreams to film. Above all else, it is a love letter to the impossible mirage of
Paramount Ranch." Read her full essay
HERE.
Last month "Young Hunting" released their single "Crimes." The track premiered at
PopMatters and can also be shared at
Soundcloud. About the song PopMatters says, "'Crimes' is the latest offering from Los Angeles-based dream pop outfit Young Hunting. The tune is an appropriate blend of the world-weary and the resolute. Filled with vocal harmonies that would not have been out of place on radio during the 1970s with musical settings that recall the warmth and glory of LPs by all those listed above, 'Crimes' is quietly and strangely anthemic (if you can imagine T.S. Eliot's famed antihero J. Alfred Prufrock crafting an anthem), a balm for the heartbroken and soul-searching."
Young Hunting's sound is formed around gentle, lush dream pop interspersed with stark, desolate gothic folk. Primary songwriters Hari Rex and Ilya Mxx first met in 2007, quickly bonding over a shared appreciation for Nick Cave, Jason Molina, Can, and the classic
California pop of the 60s and 70s.
The initial collaboration led to the "Into Yr Mind/Sonata" seven-inch record, distributed by K Records and released in 2010. Their debut album, Hazel (Gold Robot Records, 2013), was inspired mostly by failed affairs, a divorce, and life in the shadow of LA's show-business culture.
Tracks for Hazel were recorded in various locations around
Southern California, including a former ranger's station in the
Angeles National Forest, Grandma's Dojo studio in LA's Koreatown, a rented one-bedroom desert house outside of Joshua Tree, and living rooms, garages, and guest houses across Echo Park. Augmented by members of Cheekface, My Hawaii & One Finger Riot, the band appeared at a handful of festivals and toured the West Coast in support of the album.
Over the last few years, members of the band toured with other artists including
The Pharcyde and soul legend Syl Johnson. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Hari and Ilya wrote new songs, which were sporadically recorded with Patrick Taylor (bass) and Miles Senzaki (drums) and mixed at Grandma's Dojo in Koreatown. The result is True Believers, a psych-soul dream for the lovelorn. The record deals extensively with loss of future and loss of past, encountering the void on intimate terms - watching a familiar life evaporate from your hands, merging the self and the shadow-self.
