After debuting their long-awaited song “Dear to Me” after a two-year hiatus, Electric Guest have followed up their latest single with a new music video featuring Haim and even Andy Samberg — and it’s premiering exclusively on Billboard.
The black-and-white video starts off with the band playing in a roundabout before flashing an image of a woman. The video simply uses light and shadows to control the emotion in the video rather than bright colors that could draw attention away from the overall message. “The video was a family affair,” lead singer Asa Taccone revealed exclusively to Billboard. “We just got all of our friends to be in it. It’s basically all of our closest people in one room, my mom & sister included. It was such a good vibe.”
Some of those friends include the ladies of pop-rock trio Haim and comedian Andy Samberg, who is in the Lonely Island comedy troupe with Asa’s brother Jorma Taccone. “One of the Haim girls lives down the street from me, so one day all three sisters came over with some other friends of mine and after hanging out for a few hours, we went into my little studio and recorded the chorus vocals,” Taccone recalled. “I recorded them on one mic. It’s easy with them, because they’ve been singing together for years so they blend super well.” The video even showcases Taccone attempting to dance in sync with Samberg.
With the “Dear to Me” video featuring many diverse couples showing intimacy in their own ways and friends dancing together to the beat of the song, it’s no wonder the Electric Guest duo had a blast creating this track, using pure emotion and vintage synthesizers. “This is possibly my favorite song from our new album. It came from the heart,” Taccone explained. “Matthew [his bandmate] had a job at this studio in L.A. that had all of these old synthesizers from the ’70s and ’80s lying around. I came in one afternoon for just a few hours and we played around with as many of the instruments as we could, then recorded most of the rest of the song in my bedroom.”
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After releasing the finished track back in November, director Alan Del Rio Ortiz said collaborating with Taccone was a seamless blend of creativity. “We got along immediately just as people and had a lot of similar ideas,” Ortiz told Billboard. “We ended up collaborating to make something that was both very personal and also polished. I really love working with people who care as much about their work as these guys do and I think that attention really comes across here. I’m super proud to have this one out there in the world.”
Watch the music video for “Dear to Me” below: