All People’s Daniel Ray and Greg Rodrigue play the kind of emotionally charged, seams-out indie rock that seems to embody their DIY ethos. Even if the dudes didn’t run their own label, the New Orleans stalwart Community Records, the way they play together—with a sweaty, deep-blooded and open-hearted heaviness—sounds like it’s been built from the ground up.
Of course, no band is an island, and there’s a reason that Ray and Rodrigue called their label Community. The initial concept behind All People was “All People Translate Pure Unfiltered Emotion,” pointing to their belief that “there is a pure and common energy connecting all of humanity. Music is our method of self-expression within this common energy, but each person has their unique way of expressing what’s in their hearts.”
The video for All People’s “Slow,” which we’re proud to be premiering this morning, testifies to that same belief. Quick-snap videos of the band—which also includes drummer Rob Landry and guitarist Josh Campbell—hanging out with their friends are scored by hard-angle guitars and a splash of trombone that brightens up the cloudy vocal melody. In the course of four minutes, we meet, oh, fifty or so people, all of whom grace the screen for a moment. Some of them mug for the lens, and some of them bat it away playfully, but there’s a certain non-voyeuristic intimacy to it; these people obviously know and are comfortable with the person holding the camera, which means we’re getting a look into the group’s actual community.
Check out “Slow” below.
