The singer in this video looks a bit like a creepy Andy Kaufman singing like a wide-eyed Bryan Ferry. He's Dylan Von Wagner, and the song is "Simple Life," by the group Imaginary People. The music is mostly brash, often dark, with shimmering yet punchy guitars and thundering drums. I like all of that, even if I found the video itself a bit disturbing. It was obviously shot late at night in New York when few other people would be around, but the plot is elusive, so I asked Dylan to flesh out the story for me:
"I'd say the song is about a character who can't believe what an evil human he's become. In the video, he's essentially venting to someone as he wanders throughout the park, perhaps hoping to run into some trouble. This turns into the overall theme of our debut album, Dead Letterbox. There are some seedy things going on in our society and government, and we just wanted to open up the curtain a little bit. It's an unfiltered reproach on our political grey area — that patch where greed, sex, bribery and all of the hallmarks of our corrupt system suddenly collapse into entertainment. Maybe it's a Hollywood thriller ... so bring popcorn!"
We know Dylan Von Wagner's voice from his band Linfinity, which is on hiatus. Imaginary People's debut album, Dead Letterbox, is out now and the band plays its hometown of New York this week.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
