WATCH: Dan Bejar Enters the Darkroom for Destroyer’s “Girl in a Sling” Video

The second single from August 28’s “Poison Season” gets dramatic.
WATCH: Dan Bejar Enters the Darkroom for Destroyer’s “Girl in a Sling” Video

The second single from August 28’s “Poison Season” gets dramatic.

Words: FLOOD Staff

July 08, 2015

Destroyer “Girl in a Sling” video

“Dream Lover,” our first taste of Destroyer‘s upcoming Poison Season, found Dan Bejar inflicting a little E Street sax upon his dour countenance. Now, Bejar has released the video for “Girl in a Sling.” With its expertly framed shots of run-down homes, scenes of film slowly developing, and a dramatically lit performance from Bejar, it seems safe to say that Poison Season won’t exactly be Greetings from Vancouver, BC. Which, as director David Galloway explains in a statement accompanying the video, is exactly what Bejar does best:

Bejar sings a lot about cities and girls and injury, sometimes all at the same time. Sometimes they are the same thing, as surreal novelists would have us believe. Besides, people like to see Dan sing—which he doesn’t do a lot of in this video, but he does do a little bit. We wanted to make a video that dealt with central Destroyer themes: to some, Destroyer is a lech; to some, he is an arsonist; to some, he is a savior. To me, he is the consummate comedian, but he resists that role. So we decided to go the opposite way and make something sad, something tragic, something that fits the new record. The adage “comedy equals tragedy plus time” is attributed to Carol Burnett’s mum. Or it might have been Steve Allen. Either way, I always want Dan to do physical comedy, but he resists. He’s a natural, though. He’s the Pacific Northwest’s Buster Keaton, and I hope one day to share that with the world. One day. For now, though, there’s just this sadness. This poison season.

Poison Season is out August 28 on Merge.