In just a few weeks, Operators will return with their sophomore album, Radiant Dawn. The trio of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), Sam Brown (Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks), and Devojka wrote and recorded the LP throughout 2018 and early 2019 in both Montreal and Vancouver Island.
The follow-up to 2016’s Blue Wave was previewed early with last month’s “Faithless”, which we described as “a darkly coruscating electropop cut”. A second offering has been unboxed today in “I Feel Emotion”.
Although the track is upbeat in tone and colored with tingling synths, Boeckner’s voice carries a kind of ache, as though there’s a palpable void in his life. Its corresponding music video, helmed by Caleb Bardgett and Johnny Dunn, also conveys the idea of longing — specifically for days and memories past — using old television screens and video footage.
In a statement, keyboardist Devojka explained the connection between the track and visual:
“‘I Feel Emotion’ is a song for anyone who feels like they don’t know how to be alive in the world today. The video we made for ‘I Feel Emotion’ is compound nostalgia. It was inspired by a video installation I saw at an exhibition at MOMA called ‘Toward A Concrete Utopia, Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980’. The installation was a stack of tv screens playing short loops taken from what looked to be old commercials and footage of people in various states of everydayness. As a first generation ex-Yugoslavian, I was surprised to find myself fascinated and moved; the intimacy of a woman ecstatically twirling with her purse flung on her shoulder in her smart and modern skirt completely arrested me. I come from a long line of pain, and I’ve been estranged from my family for some years now. Making the video was a way to connect to this heritage; something equally familiar and foreign to me. I combed through hours of footage from old Yugoslavian films looking for those intimate moments – the moments that happen between the BIG EVENTS in our lives.”
Check out “I Feel Emotion” below.
Radiant Dawn officially arrives May 17th through Last Gang Records. The album was co-produced by Operators alongside Wolf Parade’s Arlen Thompson and Napster Vertigo. Tim Kingsbury of Arcade Fire contributed bass on the record’s closing track, “Low Life”.
To support the LP, Operators will launch a North American tour at the end of the month. Grab your tickets here.