Taleen Kali gets into the spirit of Spooky Season in new “Only Lovers Left Alive” music video

Today Taleen Kali debuts the music video for “Only Lovers Left Alive,”  from her debut full-length album out March 3, 2023 on Dum Dum Records. Produced by Jeff Schroeder of The Smashing Pumpkins and Josiah Mazzaschi (Bizou, Light FM), the album is loaded with sheets of fuzz and swirling guitars, with vocals that amass the range of femme punk to shoegaze siren. If you look closely, Schroeder also appears in this video!

Artist quote:

““Only Lovers Left Alive” is about finding connection despite all odds. I wrote this song while walking through the deserted streets of LA during the early pandemic. There was nobody in sight, I hadn’t seen another human being for days, and I imagined what would happen if there was only one other person left alive in the world.

It was amazing working on this song with our producer Jeff Schroeder of Smashing Pumpkins. We joked in the studio about how this song has 2 moods: leather jacket punk and jangle cardigan vibes rolled into one. I love all the instruments in the track that embody this tension; we have Jeff’s 12-string guitar vs. his solo guitar, Miles Marsico’s synths doubled up with the same guitar line, and Royce Hsu’s surfy bass with Rhys Hastings holding it down on the drums.

 “Only Lovers Left Alive” is one of my favorite vampire movies of all time, so for the visual we wanted to create something special for spooky season that also pays homage to vampire tropes, plus a bloody twist at the end just in time for Halloween!”

Quote from director Joe Rubenstein

“When Taleen asked me to create visuals for “Only Lovers Left Alive” I knew it had to be something dramatic, but it also had to have vampires! I recently picked up a scientific camera that is often used to film car crashes in test labs. I knew that if I combined a super-slow motion camera, vampires, and some fun stunt work we would have an amazing video. Close friend Marie Fink, of V10 Stunts, came on board. Marie has worked on films like The Dark Knight, Inception, Dunkirk, and most recently Star Wars Skeleton Crew.”

Bio:
Hailing from her native Los Angeles, Taleen Kali (she / they) composes romantic punk songs wrapped in layers of shoegaze, psychedelia, and grunge, creating a cosmic sound that’s dreamy and defiant alike. Influenced by melodies and imagery from her Armenian heritage and her parents’ birthplaces of Lebanon and Ethiopia, Kali fuses her lineage with sonics of the modern countercultures she grew up embracing, exploring everything from punk to Brit-pop. With fiery live sets and swirling sonics, her band has quickly become a staple in the L.A. music underground.

When Taleen’s band TÜLIPS went out with a bang at their final headline show at The Regent Theater in 2016, Taleen went solo, sharing bills and touring the country with indie luminaries such as Ex Hex, Alice Bag, and Seth Bogart. Her 2018 debut EP Soul Songs, produced by Kristin Kontrol (Dum Dum Girls), mixed by Brad Laner (Medicine), and recorded at Hollywood’s legendary Sunset Sound Studios, found Taleen’s riot grrrl ethos maturing into a polished, multifaceted punk sound with noise pop and new wave influences. Upon its release, Kali received praise from outlets like BUST Magazine and Stereogum, who likened her sound to a contemporary Blondie, and Soul Songs was included in Pitchfork’s Guide to Summer Albums and LA Weekly’s Best Indie Punk Albums. A year later, the band followed up with an unplugged version of the EP and covers of “Baby Love” by The Supremes and “#1 Crush” by Garbage, and Kali set off in 2020 to record a 2-song pandemic project called Changing with her TÜLIPS-era producer Greg Katz (Cheekface, LA Font).

A multi-hyphenate to the core, Kali is also the founder of experimental label Dum Dum Records and what The L.A. Times calls “cult favorite” DUM DUM Zine. A sound healer who often leads group meditations, she briefly pivoted from punk psychedelia in late 2021 for the release of her soundbath album Songs For Meditation. Her poetry, essays, and visual art have appeared in digital and international publications including The Onion, SPIN, Razorcake, Los Angeleno, and The Bushwick Review.

Kali and her band are currently gearing up for the release of their first full-length album, Flower Of Life, which they recorded at The Cave Studios in the winter of 2022 with producers Jeff Schroeder (The Smashing Pumpkins) and Josiah Mazzaschi (Bizou, Light FM, Child Seat). The title track debuted as the album’s first single on KEXP, garnering praise from Buzzbands LA and Grimy Goods, with the second single to follow in September. The band is doing a full U.S. tour this year in support of Flower Of Life, out early 2023 on Dum Dum Records.