When we connected with Rikas last year, the German indie-pop outfit was still reeling from their visit to the States, with a string of SXSW dates ultimately leading them to the very-American experience of fooling around at a Walmart. After guerilla-filming a music video for their single “Up All Night” while being pushed in shopping carts up and down the retail chain’s aisles, the band continues their fixation on totems of American consumerism with an equally powerful juxtaposition of heavy emotions and brand placement in the form of “Heartbreak Big Mac.”
“The feeling of longing plays a huge part in all of our lives, as individuals and as a group,” Rikas shares, introducing the upbeat-yet-downcast new single. “This song carries a large space inside our hearts because it feels like one of the more important ones—maybe because of the sentiment, but mostly because of the way it came to life. We wrote it together as a group in a small studio room that was more like a small library. It was just a room full of books. And maybe this room encapsulated a sense of longing within its walls.”
Having worked with Jonathan Rado on “Up All Night,” “Heartbreak Big Mac” echoes the producer’s vintage-shop indie-pop sound as the song’s protagonist contrasts the dollar-menu sandwich in his hand with the idyllic life an ex might be living in Paris or Tokyo. “It’s about a person who’s left the protagonist's life. We don’t get to know under which circumstances the leaving has happened, but through the song we get to know what this turn of events feels like and leads to the conclusion that we need to turn back time. There lies a Weltschmerz in it, but it also has a very healing sentiment. Just like crying can implicate sorrow and pain, but at the same time can be indeed deeply curing.”
Find the video for the track below, and expect more from the Rikas camp in the near future.
