Watch Los Angeles Indie Rockers Arden and the Wolves' New Music Video "Another Year Of Rain"
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New to DCWS is a unique collaboration and new release from visionary Los Angeles indie rock/alternative artist Arden Leigh, whose group Arden and the Wolves specialize in dark, retro-infused alternative rock songs, often with potent lyrical themes revealing the persona of their author. "Another Year of Rain" is a track featured on Arden and the Wolves' 5-song 2018 EP release "Who Can You Trust".
Arden has joined forces with tribal fusion belly dancer Giulio Dilemmi to conceive a powerful narrative for the new music video, based on the lyrical themes exploring destructive relationships. Statements below from both artists:
Arden: The EP that this song is featured on, Who Can You Trust, explored the theme of healing and releasing the trauma of abuse, assault, and abandonment. For the video for Another Year Of Rain, I wanted to move on from the simplistic villain/victim paradigm and begin to explore the nuances of complicity and the romanticization of certain types of harm in relationship as "passion."
Once you've grieved the harm within your past you can begin to see the ways in which your unconscious allowance may have perpetuated the cycles you experienced, and much of the collective discussion is now turning to the idea of how we can fully consent to situations that are nonetheless unhealthy or maladaptive for us. I wanted to show how sometimes it's hard to find where the line is when two people are willingly engaged in playing out a mutual narrative, and also to highlight the chemistry or genuine love that people might feel toward each other even when engaging in behavioral patterns that are destructive to their own relationship - all things that make it difficult for us to see clearly when we're so entangled.
Giulio and I connected when I reached out to him about his work in tribal fusion belly dance, and within about five minutes of messaging each other he suggested we create a music video together. I immediately said yes, and the rest was just logistics. We picked out the song, chose the location, exchanged notes and mood boards, and the work just started emerging. I absolutely could not have asked for a better co-creator capable of holding space for me to feel safe both physically and emotionally in bringing this story to life.
Giulio: In this world, the things that people talk the most about are sex, war, and power. We have about all of them in the video. In addition, maybe it's the first time many people see a male tribal fusion belly dancer that not only does a collaboration with an indie rock artist, but also performs a really masculine role in a video with a woman. This could be something that opens people's minds and gets them out of the stereotypes around the art form. It was a real pleasure to work with the whole team. It's rare that I have this work chemistry and can make something so easily in a such delicate theme with someone: Arden is an amazing artist and person, and she's been awesome to unite a group to make great work with. I traveled all the way from Italy to L.A. because my instinct told me that it was necessary to do this thing, and, in zero time, I realized that I couldn't be more right!
Watch “Another Year Or Rain” right now, stream it on Spotify, and connect with Arden & the Wolves on their social media.