Youth Lagoon’s single “Highway Patrol Stun Gun” has become increasingly perplexing with the accompaniment of a music video released yesterday. Trevor Powers, the man behind the stage name, channels a deep introspectiveness in the video directed by Kendy Ty.
In the video, Powers spends the day with a man in a metallic mask who initially appears to be a butler but gradually turns into a friend. Together, they drink, play some street ball, and dance. The last shot focuses on a Polaroid strip of film taken in a photo booth. The status-quo souvenir of friendship reveals Powers’ nostalgic yearning for someone who will always be there.
The Fader’s Sydney Gore interviewed Powers, getting to the bottom of his intentions while filming the video. Among other influential factors, the artist references police brutality, corruption among people with power, and the overwhelming chaos in the world. Coping with things he couldn’t control, he recorded the flow of his own thoughts.
“I sat down and I decided to just write whatever came to my mind… There’s also elements of loss tied to [the song] as well. I lost one of my closest friends a couple years back, and that bled into everything.”
Although Powers fixates on chaos and disorder in the interview, he takes a different route in the representation of that feeling. In fact, Powers’ psychedelic sound veers far away from chaotic trippiness, which at first glance, may better complement the state of the world. Instead, he looks inside himself, connecting his own personal losses with those experienced by each human being.
Youth Lagoon will release its third album Savage Hills Ballroom on September 25th under Fat Possum.
