One week from now, Go By Ocean will celebrate the release of their newest single “Ring Around the Sun” with a show at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California, the night before it officially comes out. Vanyaland has a sneak peek at the song — and video — both of which are below. The bouncing track comes from the San Francisco indie rock outfit’s upcoming sophomore album, Sun Machine.
“It’s an anthem proclaiming that even in the darkest of times, one can still look down the road to a better life,” Go By Ocean singer/guitarist Ryan McCaffrey tells Vanyaland. “The title ‘Ring Around the Sun’ refers to the year I spent trying to redefine myself after ages in the abyss.”
The accompanying video is striking in both its simplicity and way it takes the lyrics from “Ring Around the Sun” and transforms them. The directors of the clip call themselves Ugly Pictures, and talked about how they came up with the idea.
“The entire concept for this video stemmed from this line in the song: ‘Somehow made my way to the light again, but the darkness never sleeps,’ they say. The ink clouds represent some kind of darkness — whether that be evil or your own regrets and fears manifesting around you. We bought miniature toys at toy stores and built little scenes in fish tanks of everyday moments like ‘a man playing guitar on the streets,’ ‘a woman at home with her cats,’ etc. took these seemingly normal situations and dropped in some ‘darkness.’ The message for us was clear: The darkness of this world is always around you.”
Sun Machine comes out this spring, and will be supported with a string of West Coast dates.
