Lower Dens’ singer Jana Hunter brushes his teeth in a snazzy suit and grooves alongside dancers in the indie pop band’s new video for “I Drive.” The track is the second single off their upcoming album The Competition, out September 6th via Ribbon Music.
Shot in monochrome and directed by Jason Nocito, the video features dancers Stephannie Henriquez and Steven Jeltsch surrounding Hunter in a synth-pop haze. “We had streets,” he sings, snapping his fingers and staring into the camera through mysterious shades. “But now there’s just police.”
“Like a lot of queer and trans people, I’ve learned that real family is made, and it isn’t necessarily blood,” Hunter said of the track in a statement. “Even my blood relatives, we work for that familial connection and trust. This song is about leaving behind obligations to people who don’t love or care about you, being with and about people who do. It’s a feeling so strong it’s driving me. That’s the driving I’m doing.”
The Competition is Lower Dens’ fourth album — its predecessor, Escape from Evil, was released in 2015. The band released their first single “Young Republicans” last May. “The issues that have shaped my life, for better or for worse, have to do with coming from a family and a culture that totally bought into this competitive mindset,” Hunter says of the new record and the theme of competition. “I was wild and in a lot of pain as a kid; home life was very bleak, and pop songs were a guaranteed escape to a mental space where beauty, wonder, and love were possible. I wanted to write songs that might have the potential to do that.”