How do a couple of London boys who make soaring, indie-pop hook up with a a revered Hollywood actress and to make music? Well they run into her while on tour in LA, get drunk, and eat diner pie at 3 AM. That, my friends, is how lifelong friendships are made.
We've been following the career of Thumpers for a minute—since well before their sparkling Sub Pop released debut Galore, earlier this year—and the last time we met up with Jena was in a bathttub. No, really. Yes, she plays a role in The Hunger Games and yes we all remember her from Donnie Darko, but she also makes music as one half of The Shoe, alongside her buddy Lem Jay Ignacio. When they were in town a few months back, we lured them into a bathroom at The Standard hotel to record a couple of tracks for Noisey Acoustics. Thanks guys!But back to the of Thumpers and Jena. Not long after they met Jena happened to be in town for London fashion week and so the opportunity to collaborate on more than pie eating was suddenly a viable option.Thumpers singer Marcus and Jena's voices make a marevellous marriage: on "Devotee" he exercises his lower range with Jena's delicate tones hang in the air as a perfectly pitched counterbalance.Marcus described "Devotee" and its accompanying video thusly: "It's the most nakedly fragile lyric we've written as Thumpers and that was something we wanted to reflect in the feel of the visuals. We wanted it to be candid and natural in a way we'd not really tried before in earlier videos and, with Jena there too, reveal something truthful about us all that we'd maybe not even intended to."This is code for the trio got into a white-walled studio and messed around (or as the Brits say, mucked about) in front of the camera. Hang time, essentially.He added: "Her take brought this whole vulnerability to the song, she just realized the role in the duet so fucking well. It was a total re-affirmation of how inspiring working with other artists can be and kickstarted us to collaborate with more favorite musician buds for the rest of the EP."We love them apart, we love them together. What's the lesson here? Eat more pie, drink more alcohol.
Here are some behind the scenes pics from the shoot: all snaps courtesy of Jena Malone.Kim Taylor Bennett is a fan of pie, alcohol, Thumpers, and Jena, and she's on Twitter.
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