Sean Henry is releasing a new album, A Jump From The High Dive, at the beginning of November. We’ve heard one track from it so far — “Rain, Rain” — and today he’s sharing another called “Surf Song.” It’s snotty and devilish, building a mumbled chant into a scuzzy, hard-wired rock track. “You can almost smell the Red Bull on this track,” Sean Posila quipped in a statement about the song. “If you can, please listen while in motion.”

The song’s music video, which was directed by Ryan Schnackenberg, follows a day in the life of Sean Henry, or at least a slightly exaggerated version of what happens. Check out the song and video and a statement from the director below.

The two biggest film inspirations for me were David Byrne’s True Stories and Harmony Korine’s Gummo, which both examine oddball locals, and I think is also a shared fascination between us. I think it fits into the themes of Sean Henry’s music as a push and pull between feeling like a loser and feeling like a rock star, depression and ecstasy, and really just aiming for a balance.

The #ripseanhenry thing feels more like me jumping off a dark joke that Sean made by anointing his own social media handle as a pseudo-deathwish, but I also think there’s a kernel of balance to it; in the video we can’t tell if Sean’s blowing up from success or tragedy, and in our world there isn’t a difference, it’s all just part of the journey that he can’t really seem to escape, even when he tries–or maybe he does and that look on the beach is a desperate realization that this is all it is?

Another funny thing worth thinking about is how much we pulled from Sean’s real life. I keep turning it over in my head, and I think this could really be said for all our collaborations, but all we’re really doing is making an exaggerated version of the everyday. It’s almost a documentary! Sean Henry stuck in townie limbo but making the best of it, featuring his friends in the spaces you would actually inhabit. Even Sarah’s (@juulsexual) cameo feels like we just repurposed something that happened to him, and I think this all ties back to Sean Henry’s music and the interplay between fantasy and reality, rockstar and loser, but instead of bowing to the binary of choosing one, he mixes them all together to make something truly unique.

I hope it goes without saying that I say loser with love and affection, not like I actually think Sean’s one!

TOUR DATES:
09/26 New Haven, CT @ State House w/ Vundabar, And The Kids, Indigo De Souza
11/01 Middletown, CT @ MAC 650 Gallery w/ Spirit Was
11/02 Portland, ME @ Sun Tiki Studios w/ Spirit Was
11/03 Montreal, QC @ Bistro De Paris w/ Spirit Was
11/04 Toronto, ON @ Baby G w/ Spirit Was
11/05 Windsor, ON @ Meteor w/ Spirit Was
11/06 Kalamazoo, MI @ Shakepeares Lower Level w/ Spirit Was
11/07 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle w/ Spirit Was
11/08 Fort Wayne, IA @ Brass Rail w/ Spirit Was
11/10 Pittsburg, PA @ Funhouse at Mr. Smalls w/ Spirit Was
11/11 Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s Locker Room w/ Spirit Was
11/12 Buffalo, NY @ 9th Ward w/ Spirit Was
11/16 Baltimore, MD @ Joe2 w/ Spirit Was
11/17 Washington, DC @ Songbird Cafe w/ Spirit Was
11/18 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s w/ Spirit Was
11/22 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right (NYC release show)

A Jump From The High Dive is out 11/1 via Double Double Whammy. Pre-order it here.