Rusty Santos celebrates the Year of the Fire Horse with “Psycho Horses” music video 

VIDEO: “Psycho Horses” (dir. by Gabby Fiszman) –
YouTube

Today Rusty Santos celebrates the Year of the Fire Horse with the release of a new music video for “Psycho Horses,” the title track from his new solo album, out this Thurs, Feb. 19.

Santos offers some background on the track and video:

“As soon as I finished the song ‘Psycho Horses,’ I knew that it would be the single and that this release would coincide with the year of the horse. This song originated from a jam with me on Minimoog and Marcio Rivera on drums. I laid down scratch vocals with the lines, ‘Psycho horses galloping. I feel forces evaluating me.’ The rest of the lyrics sprang out of that. When I played the song live, Gabby Fiszman told me she had an idea for the music video; it’s entirely her concept.  We shot this at four locations: first at a horse ranch, next inside an old basement, then at a park, and finally at the beach. All the masks were hand-made with esoteric symbolism in mind; there’s no CGI in any of it. It takes place in another time, either in the deep past or in a post-technological future.”   

TOUR DATES:

02/19 Los Angeles, CA – Non Plus Ultra (Record Release Show)
02/20 San Diego, CA – Folk Arts Rare Records (Record Release Show)
02/21 Phoenix, AZ – MySpace
02/22 Flagstaff, AZ – The Hive
02/27 Tucson, AZ – Poe’s Art House
02/28 Hermosillo, MX – Sonora Museum of Art
03/04 Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
03/05 Austin, TX – The Mohawk
03/06 Houston, TX – notsuoH

About the new album:
Rusty Santos’ solo music belongs to a different timeline, one where music moved at its own speed, and artists stand out in contrast to their scenes. On his new album, as an artist, he eclipses his role as producer.  Metaphysical lyrics and psych folk textures remain, yet the mood is darker. Here, he is no longer a stranger to the city of Los Angeles, and the work is a conversation with his musical heroes. It’s as art-world-saturated as The Velvet Underground. Like Arthur Russell, he’s in revolt, an outsider amongst the indie pop music of his own time; he sounds like the avant-garde Elliot Smith. Yet, he is all of their artistic cousin, with blood of the same lineage, but walking the alternative path, as these references are only signposts, and his music aims to sound like nobody else.

There are layers of acoustic guitar, backed by a minimoog synthesizer, drum kits recorded through effect pedals, fuzzy electric bass, and guitar. Still, his presentation of these elements marks a departure point. He performs in alternate tunings, utilizing frequencies that sound unfamiliar. This is an album that could have been recorded in any era, even with the audible influence of acoustic provocateurs like Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen; yet, the DNA is that of indie rock’s golden age. That it might seem familiar is because Santos has worked on seminal music by fellow trailblazers Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Weyes Blood, Black Dice, Dawn of Midi, Owen Pallett, Beach House, Dirty Projectors, DJ Rashad, Gang Gang Dance, and more.

Psycho Horses reveals poetry in the grotesque. These sad songs about isolation, trauma, and betrayal also explore themes of evolution, self-discovery, and ultimately, how ephemeral our time together in this place we call Earth actually is. This scenery may be macabre, but these words are sung by someone who feels cursed by the beauty of the world and is devastated by how determined we are to deny it. On side A, the music transitions from atmospheric to energetic, following a parabolic curve; on side B, the music becomes more precise, and the parabolic curve now descends. Santos’ existential song lyrics guide the listener on their ascent and descent into epistemological oblivion. It is a deceptively straightforward sound, and although this music may be from a different timeline, it belongs to the here and now.

Rusty Santos
Psycho Horses
(Self-Released)
Street Date: Feb. 19, 2026
Pre-save it HERE

Track List:

RUSTY SANTOS LINKS:

Nina Protocol
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