“Even Less” provides a sombering and introspective personification
of the emptiness of heartache’s aftermath
SAINT PAUL, Minn. | October 5, 2017 – Kicking off in a lively, upbeat fashion full of power-pop hooks and indie rock riffs, The Persian Leaps single “Even Less” may at first seem a bright pop melody, but the accompanying music video, released today, gives a weighty and introspective reflection of the track’s lyrics. Pushed to levels of absurdity, the video’s surreal scenario takes on new meaning as it explores the character and life of “The Empty Man”. The music video premiered on Spill Magazine earlier this week and follows the recent release of band’s fifth EP Bicycle Face.
Vocalist and frontman Drew Forsberg shares, “The music video for “Even Less” is a departure for us. I’ve always wanted to shoot a video in an antique store or similar environment with shelves of interesting objects in the background. Coincidentally, my friend Amy Buchanan, who has a background in film, recently opened a vintage store in Saint Paul, MN called Center for Lost Objects. The store was the perfect location for shooting the video, and even the name fit the theme I had in mind for the video. We collaborated on the story and filming of the video.”
The video takes the theme of the song to an absurd extreme. In the chorus of “Even Less” Forsberg delivers the heartbreaking line, “If I was nothing when I was with you, I’m even less than that right now” and the bridge provides a sombering reflection of emptiness and abandon, “Now, come see the empty man, laid out wide open.” Forsberg shares that this line served as the direct inspiration for the video. “I play a character who’s lost everything and sunk so low that he’s living in purgatory in a place called the Center for Lost Objects. Every night, he’s awakened and fed a meal before baring himself to artists who have come to see and sketch the “empty man.” This is as low as he can fall, and he’s appearing nightly… for eternity.”
Surreal and dreamlike in many ways, the video’s simple style provides an ironic balance; the chaos of the dark humored scenario and lyrics, countered by the bright, upbeat melodies of the song. As the band would agree, it’s a perfect example of a Persian Leaps specialty, and will have you listening closer to all of their tracks.
“Even Less” comes off the band’s fifth EP Bicycle Face, released September 22, 2017 via Land Ski Records. The EP is availble digitally on on Bandcamp and all major digital retailers, and on CD at LandSkiRecords.com.
BIOGRAPHY: “The Persian Leaps” began as a phrase singer/guitarist Drew Forsberg doodled in a notebook margin during a college Greek Archaeology course. He wrote music independently under that name for years, until finally assembling a full band in 2012 to perform and record driving, chiming music influenced by The Smiths, Guided by Voices, and Teenage Fanclub.
The Persian Leaps adhere to a disciplined schedule of concise releases: each fall brings an EP of five songs totaling fifteen minutes or less. In 2013, the Persian Leaps released debut EP Praise Elephants, which NME Magazine described as a “celestial guitar jangle”. The band completed a follow-up EP Drive Drive Delay in 2014, praised by XS Noize for its “instantly catchy melodic harmonies layered on top of droning guitar.” In 2015, the band released High & Vibrate, an EP championed by The Big Takeover for its “big-time hooks, upbeat attitude, classic power-trio punch.” Most recently, 2016 saw the release of Your City, Underwater, which earned a spot on The Big Takeover’s Top 30 EPs of 2016.
The band recently completed their fifth EP, Bicycle Face, named for a 19th-century medical condition concocted to scare women away from biking. Land Ski Records released Bicycle Face on September 22, 2017 and is availble for purchase everywhere now.
