Brisbane alt rockers inovo are ready to unleash the first single from their debut album 'Desmoterion'.
A gothic ambience opens 'Swim Alone' heightening the moody atmosphere before launching with a heavy progressive groove that builds in intensity before descending into a textured, artsy alt-rock soundscape.A maelstrom of irregular rhythms and time-signature arrangements allows the song to morph between flammable, provocative tones and quieter, introspective moments.
Vocalist Declan Nicholls also imparts an emotive quality with his vocals cloaking an intense energy while maintaining an impassioned front.
"It's about a dream I once had about a gigantic humanoid entity drifting through space, swinging off of planets to change its trajectory," shares Declan of the origins of 'Swim Alone'.
"In the dream I was a prophet on Earth that had predicted its imminent approach to Earth, and wanted to warn everyone that it will be here soon and bring about the end of the world."
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (22 February), scenestr is stoked to premiere the 'Swim Alone' music video today. Enjoy.
The clip features a person with intestine-like worms branching out from its head connecting subliminally to other faceless worm-like creatures via Paganesque rituals. It's an impressive clip when you factor in it was a completely DIY job.
The band's guitarist Rhys Tyack is also a cinematographer (who has filmed videos for Halfway, Sarah Stockholm, Daylight Ghosts and others); he created the special effects masks, costumes, body organs and props that feature in the clip.
The band then brought together friends and crew to bring the song's vision to life. "Declan writes all the lyrics, which invokes a very vivid representation of the story and meaning," shares Rhys.
"I wanted the story to take some of that and combine it with the feeling I had when I wrote the track.
"In the video we incorporated quite a lot of symbolism and centralised the theme around confinement, while keeping a cosmic horror aesthetic.
"We wanted to create a visceral dimension to parallel our reality, or collective experience, relying on semiotics for layers of meaning.
"Every shot was storyboarded as we didn't have a lot of time on-set once people had intestines glued to their stomach or full-faced latex masks muting sense receptors."
'Swim Alone' is the start of inovo ramping up promo for their debut album 'Desmoterion'. "It's very relieving to release 'Swim Alone'," Rhys says.
"We've been working on these songs for quite some time, so it's exciting to release our child outside of our collective womb into the big wide world."
Adds: Declan: "We worked so hard on this song and the video, and now that it's finally going to be out there in the world I just hope it's something people connect with and enjoy.
"We have so much more to show you guys, so if you like what we do – then watch this space. Also, I love you."
The band launch 'Swim Alone' with a home-town show next month. "We may have a few surprises coming up, maybe," teases drummer Jackson Caswell.
"We like to keep things fun and unpredictable," adds Declan. "We tend to move with the music, so one minute we might be chill, and the next minute really not so chill."
inovo launch 'Swim Alone' at BackDock Arts (Brisbane) 31 March.
