Today, Indianapolis-based folk-pop duo Lily & Madeleine announce their enchanting fifth studio album Nite Swim to be released on October 6. Alongside the announcement, the band share the soothing official first taste of the project, the track and video, ‘Windowless Bedroom’ out everywhere now.
Nite Swim, Lily & Madeleine’s forthcoming fifth studio album is an expansive journey introducing the listener to various vignettes of the duo’s lives over the past five years. Its central thesis explores vulnerability, acceptance, embracing shame and acknowledging one’s feelings rather than running from them. Lily says the project dives into the feeling of “wanting to be intimate with someone but feeling like they’ll reject you when they see how complicated you are inside.” Over ten tracks, the listener is led through intimate scenes of Lily & Madeleine’s lives, collectively as sisters and individually as artists. The foundation of the songwriting was built when the band began taking stock of their lives and who is important to them. Madeleine explains, “As we go through personal hardships, it’s worth noticing the people who remain at our side and the people who disappear. What would it have been like if they stayed? Are we truly better off without them?” The album was produced by longtime friend and collaborator Shannon Hayden and other instrumentation was provided by Devon Ashley, Heidi Gluk, and Jared May.
Over a slow, grooving beat, ‘Windowless Bedroom,’ out today, embraces self-discovery and uncertainty in hopes of finding a bright spot in a dark time. Lily & Madeleine’s signature dreamy harmonies float in and out throughout, with an unwavering warmth and honesty. Madeline explains, “’Windowless Bedroom’ is about romanticizing and finding humor in the uncertainty and inevitable disappointments of life. The metaphor of a drab, lonely bedroom with no windows becomes a canvas for one’s imagination to create a more ideal reality.”
Directed by Austin Webster, the video brings viewers into Lily & Madeleine’s dream world inside their hometown art studio, Healer. Between pillow forts, old video games and hanging art installations, there’s a specific, dreamy haze that Webster captures throughout the video. Webster shares, “We decided to crank the shutter down on our second camera to make this jarring, wispy look that transformed Healer into a chaotic, ethereal, fantastical dreamscape for Lily & Madeleine to explore.”
On the goal of the video and special location, Madeleine explains, “We wanted to create a surreal, imaginative landscape in this music video, and we knew that the immersive art installations in Indianapolis’ Healer would be the perfect place to shoot. Videographers Austin Webster and Anna Doak helped us create a fun, playful video that reflects the somewhat cheeky message of the song, which is that life is messy and beautiful and all up for interpretation.”
Nite Swim:
- Windowless Bedroom
- Rolling Rock
- No Part of Me
- Cologne
- Nite Swim
- Ocean Ave
- Embers
- Good Things
- Decaying Rules
- Lost Boys
