Brit Cole
Audio By Carbonatix
Denver’s Modern Leisure, which started putting out music in 2016, is premiering its new video for the song “Rita” from the new EP Another Good Time, which drops December 18.
Directed by former Denver Post music editor and music video producer Dylan Owens, the Wes Anderson-inspired video, shot at the Fort Greene Bar, includes a chaotic mix of strobe lights and colorful, chaotic visuals of frontman Casey Banker getting a cake smashed in his face, guitarist Dean Rogers and Banker being buried under stacks of books, and close-ups of pills being swallowed.
“Casey has a very clear aesthetic vision,” Owens says. “We want it to never be boring.”
The last day of shooting was March 15, just as the city shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus. While the song is about the distance people feel as they watch their friends grow up and settle down, the video is set at a party.
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“I think it’s kind of people who dated at one point and now are getting married,” Casey says. “You still kind of miss them when your lives have gone [down] different paths.”
Owens says the song is all about how aging musicians’ dreams change as they get older.
“When you’re younger, you’re like, ‘I wanna be the next Strokes,'” he jokes. Now Casey says their goal is just to create music people can enjoy and that will “maybe be in a car commercial.”
The bandmates say the toughest thing about releasing new music right now, during a pandemic, is getting people to care.
“The goal is just to create music for people to enjoy,” Casey says. “Anything that comes after that is just extra.”
Another Good Time will be out on December 18 on Modern Leisure’s Bandcamp page.