Speedy Ortiz deploy vibrant visuals for new single "Villain" and discuss upcoming LP Twerp Verse

"Villain" is the third taste of Twerp Verse, and it links up with "Lean In When I Suffer" and "Lucky 88" to preview the band's third record. The new collection follows 2015's Foil Deer and Slugger, Dupuis' solo debut as Sad13. It's mixed by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley) and mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Emily Lazar (Sia, Haim).

It's a hard-hitting number that adroitly fuses buoyant licks, peppy off-kilter pop hooks, and and Speedy Ortiz's trademark rawness with lyrics that tie your stomach in knots. Schneider's vid follows that same pattern (on set she said it was "like The Shape Of Water, but not at all romantic,"), and you can check it out below; Dupuis chats about "Villain", the video, and Twerp Verse afterwards.

BESTFIT: Can you tell us a bit about the track?
Sadie Dupuis: "Villain" is one of the earliest songs written for the record - I demoed it in fall of 2014, after we'd finished recording Foil Deer but many months before that album was released. I had just moved to Boston with my best friend Ellen, who plays in Palehound. I remember adding a lot of synths to this song because I was working on it late at night and our walls were super thin, and me playing guitar - even without an amp, directly into my computer - was keeping Ellen up. So it had an eerie quietness to it, a sense that it should get loud but couldn't. I always liked that aspect of the demo, and felt it fit with the themes of the song - the pervasiveness of harassment, and how it can be hard to admit even to yourself when you've survived assault. Hopefully the band version retained that "could explode at any moment" tension.

How does the video work with the music?
Sadie: I sent the song to our friend Elle Schneider, a really brilliant director we've worked with before, and we talked through the themes and some narrative ideas and she came up with this great concept. I'd wanted to do a '60s-styled video, and our drummer Mike Falcone had a bunch of visual references he wanted to incorporate along those lines, which added so much. I tend to bow out of the video process once we've settled on a treatment that makes sense - working with a director I love and trust as much as Elle makes it sort of easy to just show up and let her make great choices.

What's your favourite shot/scene in the vid?
Sadie: We don't tend to gravitate towards literal videos, which is probably obvious by how many monster and horror music videos we've made. The song references a bus ride, and Elle wanted to do a bus stop scene, and even though it's literal it wound up being my favorite part - I love how the whole video is art directed, but that scene in particular came out great. I also liked shooting the weight lifting because it's the one time I've gotten to act like I'm buff! Or like I'm comfortable doing anything in heels.

How does "Villain" fit into the rest of the themes and sounds on Twerp Verse?
Sadie: To me it's a more subtle, dynamic, and haunting song than the rest of the album's tracks, which either skew towards our versions of riff rock or quirky pop. Since I write primarily on guitar, that instrument can sometimes overwhelm the rest of the track. But Mike's drums are really central on this song. And unless I'm forgetting something, it's also the only album track we've released that features a collaboration. Danny Seim from Menomena, one of my all-time favorite drummers, contributed some extra synths and percussion.

All the videos so far have been super colourful and fun, but the songs themselves tend to deal with heavier subjects. Has it been a conscious decision to mix the two?
Sadie: Totally, I like to juxtapose those kinds of feelings. I can't help myself from making morose-sounding love songs, or gussying up the manifestations of my deepest anxieties and fears with bright production. Also, as I said to a friend today, "I'm addicted to rainbow shit," and that seems to stay consistent no matter how I'm feeling or how horrifying the world becomes.

Was it an easy or hard song to complete?
Sadie: The song basically wrote itself, which is what happens when I'm writing from an intense emotion, but it took me a long while to want to release it. Because assault is such a personal topic that carries so much stigma, and takes such a range of forms. And in writing the song, I was wrestling with how much of my life I felt comfortable sharing with friends and family, much less the world. It isn't an explicit narrative, and I left it pretty open for the listener to interpret. But almost every woman I know has a story like mine, as do many of my genderqueer friends, and some male friends.

I found a great deal of comfort in talking with other survivors in my friend group and knowing that I wasn't alone in my experience, and that helped me let go of so much shame - to know that society is what's sick, and not that I'd done something wrong. If this song makes even one person feel less alone, then completing it and releasing it was totally worth it. And if it makes one person committed to always getting affirmative consent, then completing it and releasing it was worth it.

What's your favourite moment in the track?
Sadie: I love the part where the instruments other than the drums cut out - Mike's part is so cool and it's great to have all attention on it for a moment. That was Danny Seim's idea.

What scares you most about the rest of 2018?
Sadie: Ugh, a new thing every day. The 304 people who've been killed by police officers so far this year in the US. Palestinian protestors and journalists and civilians being killed in Gaza every day. The uncertain futures of DACA kids. An EPA and more largely a government that is downplaying the reality of climate change and destroying our chances of doing anything about it. It's hard to find stuff to get psyched on.

What are you most excited about?
Sadie: I love touring and meeting the people who care about our songs. Knowing that other folks are worried about the same things I am, and are connecting to our music because of it, and learning about the efforts and strides they make in their own communities... all of that makes me feel very inspired and slightly more optimistic than the answer I just gave you about how our world is messed up. I love getting to sit at the merch table and meet people at our shows - for a vaguely anti-social person like myself, that's a weird thing to be excited about, but I really like getting to know the folks who support our music.