Singled Out: Movie Club's Trap Door

Keavin Wiggins | 07-12-2021

Movie Club just released their new single and video called "Trap Door" and to celebrate we asked Vince Cuneo and Jessamyn Violet to tell us about the track, which will appear on their forthcoming EP "Fangtooth". Here is the story:

Vince Cuneo: When writing on the guitar, I try to let the instrument do most of the work. For Trap Door, I figured out how to play this inverted chord and slide my finger slightly to create this dark Middle-Eastern vibe. My approach to this song & record was to write guitar parts that could be performed in a live setting as a duo.

Jessamyn Violet: He came up with this guitar lick that was unlike anything he'd played before and I immediately heard a fast shuffle beat behind it. The chords got all crunchy for the "B" part, and we saw what the song could become so we really got weird with the pauses and transitions. Then our friend David Ralicke (Dengue Fever) came into the studio and shocked us with a flute idea that he'd been playing with on the song, running the instrument through a crazy distortion pedal. Suddenly, the song grew wings and took off... And our next challenge was coming up with visuals that could possibly match.

Vince Cuneo: After recording our albums, we usually have an idea of what track we want to be used for the music video. Sometimes this turns into multiple videos, which wouldn't happen without the incredible videographer Dustin Downing - and in this case, Brian Feinzimer as well. For instance, Dustin did 3 videos for our last EP, "Man o' War." The planning process usually goes like this: We start with a basic idea about what we want to happen in the video, and then we cold call Dustin. He usually has a location in mind which helps bring these concepts to life and always takes them to the next level. For this video, this process brought us to Bombay Beach, California in the Salton Sea.

Jessamyn Violet: This was our fourth video working with Dustin and we have this "production magic" thing happening where things come together with more trust and less planning. In this case, we were headed to a place neither of us had heard of before. So we just packed five "thrift-store-chic" outfits, completely blind, and an assortment of balloons. The color pairing just worked itself out. It was a really wild experience. The salty/artsy, ruined/abandoned aesthetic presents so well, there. But the fact that there was zero wind factor the day we shot was both crucial and complete luck. With even a small amount of wind, this would have been a very different video... Both the drones and the balloons were only workable without wind. So we really lucked out!

Vince Cuneo: From writing the guitar part in a dark bedroom all the way to recording this song & music video, we are very proud of this single and excited to share it with everyone. After spending months working on the finished product, it's like letting a balloon go into the sky and hoping that it will fly on forever. The only problem with this metaphor is that in the video, we are catching the balloons falling from the sky. What that means, I don't know -- but it was a journey that we will never forget.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the EP here