“Honey we’ve been talking, staying up all night/I’ve been trying to reach your body through the phone/Honey close the door/This time I want more/And talking is the last thing we’ll do.”
The lyrics of Lompoc trio Angie and the Nightmares’ latest single, “Talking,” tell the story of two long-distance lovers rekindling a weary relationship through phone and video calls. Written prior to shelter-in-place guidelines, composer and bandleader Angelina LaPointe, aka Angie Nightmare, couldn’t have predicted the new song’s timely, broader implications—whether it applies to partners living 10 hours away from each other, or 10 minutes.
“It’s about the sexual excitement of being separated by space and also the way that communication can be colored by emotion and desires,” LaPointe told the Sun. “COVID-19 has caused all of us to have to deal with separation in communication. Whether it’s learning online, working from home, or just calling friends instead of getting face-to-face interactions.”
“Talking” is the first song to be released from the band’s upcoming blues, folk, and roots album, Girl Talk, which is slated for an August release. But fans can look forward to hearing the new single much sooner, as well as the song’s music video, which premieres on Friday, May 1. The video has been an ongoing project for months, LaPointe said, enduring several hiccups along the way, including a substantial concept change just days before the original shoot date.
“We had planned an outdoor video shoot in the Santa Ynez Valley in early April. I bribed the band, a drone operator, a photographer, and a couple of assistants with the promise of beer and snacks to drag all their gear up to the top of a hill,” LaPointe said. “It was to be a gathering of cool, talented people that I just don’t get enough time to hang out with. But as the day approached, voluntary self-isolation started, and it felt irresponsible to get together.”
But the quarantine lifestyle we were still adapting to back at the end of March also inspired LaPointe to pitch her team a new approach for the video, she explained.
“The day we canceled the shoot, I had a Zoom call for work, ended the day with a livestream concert, and texted the guys. ‘Hey, what if … ?’” the singer-songwriter said.
LaPointe proceeded to propose a Zoom-style music video in which she and her bandmates—guitarist Aaron France and drummer Sean Campbell—would film themselves performing from their own homes and other locations and compile the footage later. As the band switched gears for the video, not being in each other’s company during production created a tangible disconnect, fittingly resembling the song’s theme of miscommunication.
“We were amused by how unabashedly meta the concept was but also how it really reflected how disconnected we felt,” LaPointe said.
What connects “Talking” and the rest of Angie and the Nightmares’ songs on the group’s upcoming album, however, are themes related to adulthood, LaPointe said. While also the lead vocalist and bassist, LaPointe is the band’s principal songwriter and approaches each composition from a storyteller’s point of view, inspired by Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, and other old-school country musicians.
“As is always the case for me, the songs are really centered on story,” LaPointe said. “The whole album is basically about learning how to be an adult—about the expectations and misconceptions we have about sex, relationships, marriage, and adulthood in general.”
The title track of the album, “Girl Talk,” for example, illustrates the somewhat abstract, but pretty relatable, complexities of trying to make new friends as an adult, LaPointe explained.
“I’m a pretty well-adjusted woman in my 30s and asking someone I’d like to be friends with out for coffee is just as terrifying as it would have been talking to my crush in high school,” LaPointe said. “And I’ve talked about it with others—I’m not the only one who feels that way.”
Send music recommendations to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 7, 2020.