As we emerge from this dastardly pandemic age, we’ll be witnessing a lot of art that was created over the period of quarantine and lockdown, tales of struggle and trauma that no doubt permeated through many of our lives. But things weren’t exactly wonderful in the chaotic days before last March, and the art created pre-COVID is no doubt equally as relevant as we resume a so-called normalcy. For Thunder Jacket and the Boston alt-rock band’s new single “Losing Sleep,” the lead track off yesterday’s (June 22) appropriately-titled Before Times EP, feelings of restlessness and uncertainty were already amongst us long before COVID arrived.
“‘Losing Sleep’, like the other songs on the EP, was written before the pandemic yet it is very much a song and music video reflective of the times,” Glen Fant tells Vanyaland. “The song is about what many of us experienced during the pandemic working from home; too much blue light from constant screen time making sleep seem impossible.” He adds on the band’s Facebook page: “[It’s] a song about those times you know you desperately need rest, but are unable to do anything aside from more scrolling on your phone. Like a car crash you know you shouldn’t look at, but are unable to turn away from.”
The video for “Losing Sleep” was inspired by a sleep study Fant experienced last summer with his young son, the child hooked up to EEG machines to monitor brain waves while he slept. “The image of him with wires pasted to his scalp stuck with me as I started planning this video,” adds Fant. “So I bought a lab coat, some alligator clips and a plastic cap to recreate the scene for the video. All of the other footage is public domain archival footage from NASA that I found disturbingly prescient and appropriate considering the lyrics of the song and the times we were living through.”
And living past. Fire up the video below, and check out Thunder Jacket’s new three-song EP via Bandcamp before the jump.
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