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Today, KUNZITE — the duo of Mike Stroud (Ratatat) and Agustin White (Abuela) — takes fans on a citrus joyride via the psychoactive-inducing video for their song “LEMON SWAYZE,” the latest from upcoming album VISUALS (out Aug 20 via Lowly./Wilder). Directed by FelixHeyes, the visual follows the effortlessly cool lemon bandit as he rides through Los Angeles, bringing a little (lemon) zest everywhere he goes. The pair have also announced a fall West Coast Tour, kicking off on September 10th in Albuquerque (see dates below). Watch “LEMON SWAYZE” here: https://youtu.be/VfCN7CtNQz8.
The track, “LEMON SWAYZE,” was inspired by a vision Agustin had of lemons as spaceships, induced by the consumption of Lemon Cane cannabis, and the new video is as far out as his hallucinations. Of creating the “LEMON SWAYZE” video, Heyes shares: “The video’s lead actor, Michael ‘Keysey’ Keyes, is a Colonel Sanders-esque character who also has Hulk Hogan’s mustache, and he asked me if I knew what ‘pronoia’ was. He said, ‘Well, you know how paranoia is the feeling that unknown things are conspiring against you? Pronoia is the feeling that unknown things are conspiring to help you.’ And then he drove off in a 1971 Mustang full of lemons. Being ‘pronoid’ pretty much sums up my experience with KUNZITE and the team behind this music video!”
“LEMON SWAYZE” was recorded between Stroud’s upstate New York barn studio and White’s Oregon dome-shaped studio — a place that resembles adobe dwelling like where Luke Skywalker grew up on Tatooine. Agustin stood in the middle of the dome and felt the channel of energy via the light coming in through and sang the first thing that came out of his mouth, which is what you hear on the final track today. The duo also tell Consequence, “Mike was navigating through a mean Grace Jones disco streak… The simple, raw production in some of Jones’ tracks of this era were an inspiration.” The track was spotlighted on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music 1 show as a “World First” record where he noted, “It’s my favorite song of the year already…That’s an incredible record.”
