Exclusive Track & Video Premiere: ‘Then There’s You,’ Saskwatch

Proximity and affection often don’t equal closeness. As much as one cares for another, distance may arise, and recovering a mutual understanding requires effort. Australian six-piece Saskwatch’s second-ever single, “Then There’s You”—which premieres below alongside its beautiful, minimal music video—explores this feeling of disconnect, in which one drifts apart from a loved one even though a love remains. “It’s really a song about taking ownership of your mistakes and moving forward,” explains the band’s guitarist and keyboardist Liam McGorry, “about learning to speak the same language again.”

Vocalist Nkechi Anele levelheadedly sings, “Stay another season / It’s lonely when you go / I thought I spoke your language / But you don’t speak it anymore,” over an emotive, psychedelic melody, all while partially immersed in a pool of milky water. The video’s director, Madeline Kelly, wanted to place Anele “in an abstract world that didn’t feel like anywhere on Earth.” It’s in this otherworldly environment that Anele finds her partner. Plants begin to appear around them (and even emerge from them); nature seems to bridge a gap, ultimately bringing them together. “This song in particular sounds really innocent to me and somewhat naïve,” reflects Anele, “but at the same time you also get this feeling of resilience and defiance in the way the lyrics talk about love, longing, frustration, and loss.”

“Then There’s You” is one of 11 songs on Saskwatch’s forthcoming debut LP Manual Override (Grow Yourself Up), which will be released on August 4. McGorry describes the album as “a reset, a turning point.” The process of making it brought the band’s members—Anele, McGorry, Rob Muinos, Tom Pettit, Sam Raines, and Olaf Scott—closer together, as both collaborators and friends, which in turn allowed them to be more open and approach their work anew. “With this album we have a few more tracks that are subtle compared to songs we’ve made in the past, with a little more vulnerability being present,” says Anele. “Saskwatch is continuously changing and trying out new things, whether that be sonically or physically, by getting in a pool of milk.”

MANUAL OVERRIDE (GROW YOURSELF UP) IS OUT AUGUST 4, 2017. FOR MORE ON SASKWATCH, VISIT THEIR WEBSITE.