Los Angeles creative Nick Rattigan has played music as Surf Curse and directed Girlpool’s “123” video, and his main focus at the moment is another band called Current Joys that brings his audio and visual pursuits together. He’s planning to release the latest Current Joys LP, A Different Age, as a visual album — that’s the cover art up above — and today we’re premiering videos for its first two songs.

The first, “Become The Warm Jets,” pays homage to Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets as well as the work of German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder through its use of color and depiction of intimacy. Rattigan explains:

The video, like the song, represents clinging onto your own ideas of nostalgia. It was important to make the characters faceless so the audience could take away different meanings, however, the video itself is latent with personal artifacts from my past. For instance, The Hard Rock Cafe jacket is reminiscent of my hometown of Las Vegas. My dance partner, Matthew Proulx, was the star of my first and only music video, ‘My Spotless Mind.’ The Sonic Youth poster, which looms in the background, is emblematic of the musical influences from my adolescence. These three elements from various stages of my life culminate in a warm red light embrace, but soon become cold in the harsh light of reality. I ask the listener, ‘is it me or is it you who can’t relate?’ Nostalgia can satisfy us with temporary comforts, but we are eventually consumed by the warm jets we surround ourselves with, unable to relate to the present… As the guitar riff repeats and the volume increases, you are overwhelmed by the sentiments of the past. I wanted to create this same effect at the end of the song with the crescendo of synths washing over the listener. These warm jets act as both a grand conclusion to the slow burning ballad, as well as a sonic invitation into the record.

Watch “Become The Warm Jets” below.

The main story stems from the second video, for “Fear.” Rattigan said this about the visual interpretation:

I suffer from deep-seated anxiety. Throughout writing this record, it peaked at debilitating levels. My mind consistently assumes the worst and I am trapped inside these dark holes, leaving my nervous system in a constant state of fear. The situations always differ, but certain symptoms remain the same: The pain in my chest, the incessant repetition of thoughts, and the isolating of my close friends. It is usually impossible to break out of this hole, so I turn to music. ‘Fear’ examines my daily pressures with anxiety, while also providing a cathartic release through the synth driven chorus. The powerful synths break the building pressure of the song into an escape from the dark worlds, real or imaginary, I have created in my head. If ‘Warm Jets’ is a dance with the past, then ‘Fear’ is an anthemic outcry for the future.

Here’s the “Fear” video:

A Different Age tracklist:

01 “Become The Warm Jets”
02 “Fear”
03 “Alabama”
04 “Way Out Here”
05 “No Words”
06 “In A Year Of 13 Moons”
07 “A Different Age”
08 “My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days”
09 “Fox”

Tour dates:

03/09 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room (A Different Age LP release show)
03/14-03/16 Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/17 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada NSFWknd *
03/19 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
03/22 Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival #
03/24 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
03/25 Portland, OR @ Holocene
03/27 Arcata, CA @ Outer Space
03/28 Reno, NV @ Holland Project
03/29 Sacramento, CA @ Sol Collective
03/30 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
03/31 Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room at the Observatory
04/03 Chicago, IL @ Schubas
04/04 Iowa City, IA @ Mission Creek Festival
04/06 Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s Locker Room
04/07 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar Upstairs
04/08 Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMoCA
04/09 Brooklyn, NY @ Park Church Co Op
04/12 Montreal, QC @ Casa del Popolo
04/13 Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha
04/14 Lansing, MI @ Mac’s
* w/ Porches, Public Access TV
# w/ Andrew W.K., Zola Jesus, Titus Andronicus, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya and more

A Different Age is out 3/2 via Danger Collective. Pre-order it here.

CREDIT: Olivia Hemaratanatorn