Gina Barrington (vocals, guitar) is the primary creative voice behind Rose of the West, the Wisconsin-based outfit that released its self-titled debut on 5 April via Communicating Vessels. Culled from that effort, “Love Lies Bleeding” speaks to the unit’s desert gothic sound. Infused with hooks and conjuring images of wide-open spaces, the song challenges our basic notions about pop music while giving us hope for the form’s future. Moreover, it serves as a reminder that the simplest songs are often the best, the most relatable and reachable.
Joining Barrington in her current journey are Cedric LeMoyne (Remy Zero, Alanis Morissette), Thomas Gilbert (GGOOLLDD), Erin Wolf (Hello Death) and Dave Power (The Staves). Following the lead single, “Roads”, described as “a volatile display of the long journey Barrington had to embark on to arrive at Rose of the West, this latest cut advances the mythology.
Video director Aliza Baran says, “The video was inspired by a still photo taken of Gina in a New Mexico motel while filming the psychedelic western ‘Roads’ music video. Continuing the theme of an internal haunting we enlisted the collaboration of Wes Tank, who edited the ‘Roads’ video, and locked ourselves in a motel in Wisconsin to create the visual emotive mood. Who haunts who as the characters transcend into reflections, shadows, and hopelessness.”
Tank, who acted as camera operator and editor adds, “I had recently been brought into Rose of the West’s close-knit tribe of artists as an editor on their Super 8-filmed psychedelic western visual for ‘Roads’. Shortly after turning in the final version I was invited by Gina and Aliza to an undisclosed location where an estate auction was taking place. They were sourcing items for the cabinet of curiosities they co-own and operate. After the auction I was blindfolded and escorted to what sounded like a bowling alley but felt like a speakeasy, where they offered me pieces of useful information such as the description of a ghost, a motel mirror, a visitation and an exchange. A shadow’s grasp. Identity invested in a blue Lincoln with bucket seats and no rearview. I was handed a photograph and asked to smell it and removed the blindfold. After staring at it for several seconds, it evaporated.”
He continues, “‘Love Lies Bleeding’ is the kind of plant that sometimes gets airbrushed into obscure outskirt motel bedspreads. They make water change color. They are a pattern that becomes a place. You can bathe in them. You collapse light through a blend mode if your shadow achieves sufficient saturation and the window glow gives its distance a justified chance at capturing the obfuscated luminosity that could of course then be layered in to suggest the apparitions inherent within the neon maroon hues of the song.”