"I've got a book of matches/ You've got a VCR/ Handwritten note in blood/ You've got a scar," Erin Hoagg sings on the new Rare DM tune. Last we heard from the darkwave artist, she was waxing poetic about skater boys. Now, on "The Ring," she's switched gears and gone horror-movie mode.
"'The Ring' is a journey into the chaos you created by trying to make things better," Hoagg explains, continuing:
"The Ring" is about trying to fix something when you should have left it alone. It is about a misunderstanding — did you make it worse by addressing it in the first place? You tried to fix it and now it's even more messed up. Who is the real enemy now? Did you "fuck around and find out"?
In the video I am the driver, doing the chasing, being chased, in the passenger seat, and getting lost in the woods. It's confusing, just as the situation behind the song was. It's not some resolved buttoned up thing — not a friend you cut off or a lover you stopped seeing. Something cloudy and more sinister.
It is my first song I have released that is "not romantic" to me. (Although people get caught in romantic Rings all the time!) The video was unromantic as well, but a blast to make. It was shot in Michigan when I was home for the holidays — the majority was filmed at my Uncle Brian's property, we used my Dad's 1991 VW Vanagon Carat, Calvin Stark filmed using an 80s Panasonic VHS, my Mom drove, and I edited it after we got back to NYC. The whole thing was a whirlwind, shot over two nights and just about 4 hours total. I ended up having to edit out a bunch of coughing fits because I was recovering from pneumonia, on my 6th day of antibiotics.
"The Ring" and its music video are both as spooky as they are fun. See for yourself below.
