Southern California rockers Death Valley Girls release their new album, Welcome To Earth, this Friday, 9 October, via Suicide Squeeze Records. Forged from the emotional aftermath of a devastating Los Angeles wildfire, Welcome To Earth emerged from a moment of loss and tragedy for singer Bonnie Bloomgarden.
The album’s final single, ‘How Losing Everything in the Fire Taught Me to Love Myself’, is a psychedelic-fuelled reflection on a winding road through terror, trauma and ultimately moving forward, finding that even after everything, all is not lost.
On the single, Bloomgarden shares:
“I spent my whole life trying to change myself, trying so hard to be ‘normal’ and imagining that everyone else was entitled to a level of worthiness I hadn’t yet earned. The fire forced me to stop focusing on who I needed to become and start learning how to feel safe with who I already was. After a lot of therapy, which I was very, very lucky to have access to, I realized I wasn’t just recovering from trauma—I was becoming comfortable with myself. This song is about losing everything, being terrified, and finally discovering that even when I have nothing, I have all I need.”
On the accompanying video, director Dylan Mars Greenberg shares:
“Immediately listening to this song I wanted to create something really kinetic and I imagined Bonnie flying through the sky. I have always been enamored by older methods of effects where they did effects in camera, and my entire life I had wanted to try using rear projection. Instead of a green screen, where you’re just on a big green wall and have to add the background in post, rear projection allows the environment to be projected in real time. We actually used a slightly different process provided by the studio, the Clubhouse, that used front projection, but either way we were able to do everything in the camera. I could see bonnie flying through the air through the eye of the camera in real time and I think that’s what really added to the dream quality of the film. My partner Glitter Macabre did Bonnie’s makeup which was also based on a few ideas I had, Glitter than created a sketch that really brought the look into a tangible space and then that sketch became a reality on Bonnie’s face. The makeup itself represents flight, the wings of her eyes are like the wings of a bird. The video is about Bonnie’s character, lost and flying alone, finding love and friendship in the sky.”
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