Credit: Tabor Allen
Cherry Glazerr – the Los Angeles based trio led by frontwoman Clementine Creevy – today release their video for “Call Me,” their new single featuring Grammy award-winning Pop/Rock Group Portugal. The Man.
The video for ‘Call Me’ was directed by Isaac Soloway-Strozier and stars performance artist Jibz Cameron (“Dynasty Handbag”) working to realize her QVC hosting dreams.
Says Clementine Creevy, “Lyrically the song is inspired by John Carpenter’s “They Live” and is actually from the perspective of advertisers. It’s about the more insidious ways we are held down by capitalism, and how we internalize it so deeply that we don’t even recognize its hold on us. It’s about greed and the power of shiny, glossy consumerism.”
Creevy continues: “We had my good friend Isaac Soloway-Strozier direct the music video and he had this idea for the theme of the video to be centered around this aspiring QVC personality, which fit perfectly with the message of the song. We scored Jibz Cameron as our star, which is the coolest thing ever. She’s such a legend and so funny. It was a dream come true to have her as our star. My favorite part is her testing out the toaster.”
Says director Isaac Soloway-Strozier, “We wanted to match what felt like the main irony of the song—upbeat music with more despairing lyrics. Like the song, the video hopes to have a cheery exterior and a sadder interior. Jibz’ hopeful frantic performance is doubly desperate, aspiring to get on QVC and likewise imploring her non-existent viewership to call in.”
Upon the song’s release Stereogum said “’Call Me’ feels like a breath of fresh air, sauntering along with a funky groove guided by congas and art-grunge guitar” while Consequence of Sound wrote “’Call Me’ finds the perfect balance between Cherry Glazerr’s more experimental pop inclinations and Portugal’s grooving psych rock. As Creevy trades vocals with PTM’s John Gourley, “Call Me” laces squealing string noise around driving bongos. The end result is something that’s ghostly alluring yet eerily foreboding.”
Co-produced by Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, HAIM) together with Creevy and Cherry Glazerr drummer Tabor Allen, the collaboration between Cherry Glazerr and Portugal. The Man was born from a tour the two bands embarked upon together in 2018.
Gourley says of the collaboration: “We asked Cherry Glazerr to come out on tour with us a couple years ago because we loved the music. We had no idea they were going to be that cool. They are bad as hell. Their attitude to music and life is amazing. It is like that old quote, ‘Rock and Roll is not a leather jacket.’ That is Clem and Tabor, they are totally punk. We talked about it for a solid year before we could get our schedules to align but if finally happened, and I am just happy to be on one of their songs.”
Creevy says, “We were touring with Portugal. The Man and it was magical. It was definitely one of our favorite tours ever, and afterwards we started talking about doing a track together. We were like “there’s no way PTM is going to take time out of their insane schedule to make a song with our measly little asses” but sure enough we got into the studio together with Ariel Rechtshaid and spent two days writing and getting weird and creative.
