After steeping herself in NYC’s vibrant art-pop scene over the past decade, playing in projects including Here We Go Magic and TEEN, Lou Tides is establishing herself as a solo artist with her entirely singular debut project Infinite Loop, which is divided between an EP and a short film which brings each of these songs to life while coloring in the vibrant world already established in the music. “I think of these songs as a map,” she shared in a press release upon the EP’s release last Friday. “A sequence in time. And the sequence of the songs follows that map, that loop.”
As each of the EP’s five tracks explores different moods, sound palettes, and vocal modulations—from blown-out-speaker dance music to tender sax-accompanied ballad—the paired visuals flip through various settings, outfits, dance moves, and prosthetic dolphin faces. “I had seen this video of dolphins who could recognize their reflection, and they would just swim round and round, catching a glimpse of themselves, this beautiful sort of dance,” Tides shares of the latter imagery. “I was going through some real transformations in myself, in my work, processing some painful events of the past... I loved the idea of becoming one of these sweet animals, who were not judging themselves, slightly goofy, slightly ugly. It felt like a kinder way of viewing oneself when you’ve been damaged by a painful past—and I wanted to create that feeling within myself, so I thought, maybe I can become that?”
Tides brought this idea to director Suz Murray Sadler (who had previously served as DP on Tides’ video for “Belief”) who helped bring it to life. “They somehow thought it was feasible and not totally insane. So we developed a film, and we created worlds, and my dream character, a benevolent cetacean-human was born. A different...me?”
Watch the full film below, and check out the EP here.
